Mountain Views

Th e Newsletter of the Consortium for Integrated Climate Research in Western Mountains CIRMOUNT

Informing the Mountain Research Community

Vol. 7, No. 2 NOVEMBER 2013 En route Reno to San Diego looking into Mexico. Photo: K. Redmond

Editor: Connie Millar, USDA Forest Service, Pacifi c Southwest Research Station, Albany, California Layout and Graphic Design: Diane Delany, USDA Forest Service, Pacifi c Southwest Research Station, Albany, California

Front Cover: South Sister, Oregon Cascades. Photo: J. Blanchard

Back Cover: South Sister from Broken Top, Oregon Cascades. Photo: J. Blanchard

Read about the contributing artists on page 52. Mountain Views The Newslett er of the Consortium for Integrated Climate Research in Western Mountains CIRMOUNT Volume 7, No 2, November 2013 www.fs.fed.us/psw/cirmount/

Table of Contents

Th e Mountain Views Newsletter Connie Millar 1

Articles

TOPOFIRE: A System for Monitoring Insect and Climate-Induced Zachary Holden, William Jolly, Russell Parsons, 2 Impacts on Fire Danger in Complex Terrain Allen Warren, Erin Landguth, and John Abatzoglou

Th e Global Treeline Range Expansion Experiment Carissa Brown 6

An Experimental Approach to Determining Biophysical Constraints Lara Kueppers 8 to Western Subalpine Forest Regeneration and Migration with Climate Change

Brevia

Moisture Limitations to Tree Establishment Extends All the Way Up Andrew Moyes 12 into the Alpine Zone

Large-Scale Foraging Behavior in the American Pika: Linking Justine Smith and Liesl Erb 14 Behavior and Environment

Taking a Census of California Rock Glaciers from Space Lin Liu, Connie Millar, Bob Westfall, and 18 Howard Zebker Interview

An Interview with the Founders and Leaders of GLORIA, 21 Georg Grabherr and Harald Pauli

Voices in the Wind

M. Cross, D. Dulen, G. Garfi n, J. Halofsky, S. Jackson, K. Nydick, 28 D. Peterson, N. Stephenson, and J. Th orne

i News, Briefs, and Events

Update on Mountain Research Initiative Activities: Building a Greg Greenwood 32 Network of Mountain Observers

What Can Climate Services Learn From E-Commerce? Nina Oakley 36

Successful Sage-Grouse Habitat Protection in Spring Peak Fire Sherri Lisius 39 Management

Book Review -- Alpine Treelines: Functional Ecology of the Global Dave Cairns 41 High Elevation Tree Limits, by Christian Körner

New Book: Th e West Without Water, by B. Lynn Ingram and Frances 44 Malamud-Roam

MtnClim 2014, CIRMOUNT’s Mountain Climate Conference, Sept 45 15-18, 2014; Midway, Utah

AMS 2014 Mountain Meteorology Conference 46 Did You See (Hear, Feel, Touch, Smell) It?

Lenticular Clouds Revisited Connie Millar and Nina Oakley 47

Th e Ever-Changing Celebration Margaret Eissler 50

Contributing Artists 52

Mountain Visions 53

Valerie Cohen Art Norman Schaefer Poetry

Clouds SE Wyoming. Photo: J. Hicke

ii The Mountain Views NewsleƩ er

Welcome to Mountain Views, the biannual newsletter of If you’d like to do so, feel free to contact me and I can help with the Consortium for Integrated Climate Research in Western logistics. A post-conference workshop for managers focused on Mountains (CIRMOUNT, www.fs.fed.us/psw/cirmount/). forest health and climate in the eastern Great Basin is in planning. Gathered in these pages are reports on current mountain- Deadlines for registration and abstract submission for MtnClim climate and climate-response studies, Brevia of recently 2014 are not until July 15, 2014, but, as we limit attendance to published articles, book reviews, mountain climate news and 120, I encourage early registration. See more information on the announcements, and our seasonal round-up of mountain artwork, program and venue on page 45; the conference website is: http:// with focus this issue on mountain clouds. www.fs.fed.us/psw/mtnclim/

Two events sponsored by CIRMOUNT are upcoming, and I In this issue we feature an article on TOPOFIRE (pg. 2), a hope you can attend one or both. At the annual Fall meeting new and very promising decision-support tool for assisting fi re of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in San Francisco, management in complex mountain terrain, and two articles on California, CIRMOUNT convenes sessions on “Climate the alpine and arctic upper treeline ecotone. These include a Change and Wildfi re: Drivers, Interactions and Consequences”, monitoring program designed to guage global response (pg. organized by Don McKenzie (USFS Pacifi c Northwest Research 6) and an intensive site-based experimental heating study (pg. Station), Alina Cansler (University of Washington) and myself. 8). Brevia articles summarize recent publications, in this issue Included are two oral sessions and a poster session, all on including one derived from the alpine treeline heating experiment Tuesday, December 9. CIRMOUNT’s mentor organization, the (pg. 12), another on a novel study of adaptive behavior in international Mountain Research Initiative, hosts sessions on American pika (pg. 14), and a third on early results with new “Environment and Ecosystem Changes in the Third Pole and technology to measure rock-glacier movement (pg. 18). Given Other Mountain Regions” and “Accelerated Warming at High a change in leadership of the international GLORIA program Elevations: Evidence, Processes, and Future Projections”. Find (Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments), session information on the AGU website http://fallmeeting.agu. I took advantage to interview the former and new directors, org/2013/scientifi c-program-2/ Georg Grabherr and Harald Pauli (pg. 21). Finally, for the Voices in the Wind section, this issue I posed a question about On behalf of the CIRMOUNT coordinators, I am excited to imperatives for mountain climate adaptation. CIRMOUNT extend an invitation to attend MtnClim 2014, our fl agship colleagues contributed valuable insight through their replies (pg. mountain-climate conference. The meeting will convene 28). September 15-18, 2014 at the Homestead Resort in Midway, UT, in the high Wasatch Range, 1 hr drive from Salt Lake City. I hope you enjoy these and other articles, news, and art We are pleased to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the MtnClim contributions in the autumn 2014 issue. On behalf of the meetings, with the fi rst having occurred in North Lake Tahoe, CIRMOUNT coordinators, I send best wishes for the upcoming California in 2004. In addition to fi eld trips, talks, posters, and holidays and for a long, snowy (I hope), and mountainous winter. discussion within the meeting, MtnClim conferences are an opportunity to convene additional satellite work-group meetings. – Connie Millar, Editor

Photo: S. Strachan

1 TOPOFIRE: A System for Monitoring Insect and Climate Induced Impacts on Fire Danger in Complex Terrain

Zachary A. Holden1, William M. Jolly2, Russell Parsons2, Allen Warren3, Erin Landguth3, and John Abatzoglou4 1USDA Forest Service, Region 1, Missoula, Montana 2Fire Sciences Laboratory, Missoula, Montana 3University of Montana, Dept. of Biology, Missoula, Montana 4University of Idaho, Dept. of Geography, Moscow, Idaho

Wildfi re Management in Complex Topography This represents a huge fi re management knowledge gap that could dramatically alter how and where we manage or suppress Despite broad agreement that fi re is an essential ecosystem com- wildfi res if it were fully addressed. ponent, fi re management in the western U.S. mostly favors wildfi re suppression. A direct consequence of continued suppression With support from NASA, scientists from the U.S. Forest Ser- is that most of the acreage burned in the U.S. burns during hot, vice, the University of Montana, and University of Idaho have dry conditions, making management more diffi cult and danger- developed a prototype, open source, interactive web server called ous, and with more negative ecological effects. Recent mountain Topofi re (topofi re.dbs.umt.edu), designed as the next generation pine beetle outbreaks in the west dramatically alter fi re behav- of the Wildland Fire Assessment System (WFAS). The overall ior, adding additional complexity to fi re management opera- goal of Topofi re is to integrate NASA remote sensing and climate tions. Wildfi res are a major driver of landscape-scale vegetation products into a decision support tool to rapidly synthesize and change, and managing fi res more safely and effectively poses a deliver high spatial resolution hydrologic and fi re potential in- daunting challenge in the face of expected warming and drying in formation to support both tactical and strategic fi re management the western U.S. that will likely result in more frequent fi res with decisions. Data on the Topofi re server can be viewed, queried greater area burned. Data and tools that facilitate more proactive and downloaded by watershed, predictive service area, or user- fi re management are needed. defi ned region (Fig. 1).

The primary limitation of available wildland fi re management Climatic and Hydrologic Downscaling decision-making tools is that they ignore many spatial and temporal fi re environment variations, particularly in regions of complex A primary goal of Topofi re is to integrate fi ne-scale spatial topography. The fi re environment is loosely defi ned by three variation in temperature, humidity and snowmelt timing on fi re factors: fuel, weather and topography. Fuel and weather vary danger estimates. The prototype Topofi re server provides a suite strongly both seasonally and spatially. Many weather factors such of climatic, hydrologic and fuel moisture models for the U.S. as temperature, humidity, wind, radiation, precipitation and snow Northern Rocky mountain region. To better address the infl uence cover infl uence ignition probability and regulate the behavior of insolation and cold air drainage on surface air temperature, of that fi re upon ignition. These conditions vary dramatically in we leverage data from more than 2000 low-cost temperature and complex terrain (Holden and Jolly 2011). However, operational humidity sensors (Holden et al. 2013) distributed across the Pa- fi re management tools like the National Fire Danger Rating cifi c Northwest and Canada from 2009-2012. The hourly 1/12th System (NFDRS) and fi re behavior simulations performed in the degree National Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS2) is Wildland Fire Decision Support System (WFDSS) are applied ingested each day. These relatively coarse grids are downscaled using input data from a single point, (usually the nearest Remote to 240 meters using empirical models derived from relation- Automated Weather Station [RAWS], which may be many miles ships between sensor network data and coarse resolution gridded distant from the actual fi re location) and these conditions are climate data. Topofi re implements the FASST hydrologic model assumed to be representative of the landscape-scale conditions (Frankenstein and Koenig 2004), using inputs that include terrain where decisions are being made. Even basic questions like how adjusted temperatures, wind simulations from WindNinja, terrain delayed snowmelt timing and cooler temperatures on north-facing and cloud corrected solar radiation, overstory vegetation char- slopes infl uences fi re spread rates have never been addressed. acteristics, as well as soil type and depth. An example gridded FASST soil moisture map is shown in Fig. 2.

2 Figure 1. Topoﬁ re web interface showing MODIS NDVI relative greenness for October 16th 2013.

Mapping Potential Fire Behavior in Mountain Pine timely maps of historical and emerging insect-induced tree mor- Beetle-Affected Areas tality are essential for safely and effectively managing wildland and prescribed fi res. Recent Mountain Pine Beetle (MPB) outbreaks are affecting the surface and canopy fuel distributions across millions of acres of We applied the Breaks For Additive Seasonal Trend algorithm Western U.S. forests and these fuel changes can result in extreme (BFAST; Verbesselt et al. 2009) to MODIS 240 m vegetation fi re behavior, particularly in the early “red” stages of attack. Fire index data to estimate the year of MPB attack. We assessed the managers currently rely on hand-drawn aerial survey maps for ability of the BFAST algorithm to detect historical year of MPB information on the location of beetle-killed areas. These maps attack at 274 intensifi ed Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) generally represent last year’s conditions, and surveys usu- plots on the Helena National Forest, Montana, that were mea- ally miss large areas each year. Subjective differences between sured in 2005 and then re-measured in 2008-2010 following a observers can also complicate analysis and limit utility. Accurate, massive pine beetle outbreak. The BFAST algorithm correctly predicts the year of MPB attack with 78% accuracy. When combined with aerial sketch mapping data, detection maps derived from MODIS data should improve the accuracy and spatial resolution of MPB maps used for fi re management.

Linking Knowledge from Physics-Based Simula- tions to Operational Models at Landscape Scales

A key gap in our understanding about the infl uence of MPB- induced vegetation change results in part because operational fi re models (e.g., FARSITE, FLAMMAP) are limited in their capability to address beetle kill effects, often signifi cantly underesti- mating potential fi re intensity. A new class of dynamic, physics- based fi re models is better equipped to characterize fi re behavior in such complex fuel situations. However, the computational demands of these models limit their use to small-scale research Figure 2. FASST modeled 5 cm soil moisture gridded output for August studies. There is thus a need to extend what we can learn from 13th 2013 for Idaho and Western Montana. Inset shows the Bitterroot more detailed models to the broader landscape scales important to Mountains. operational concerns.

3 To bridge this gap, we developed the MPB-LCP tool, which links Table 1. Expected products and deliverables from the Topofi re project. information from physics-based fi re behavior models to operational models. We fi rst parameterized a set of detailed simulations at stand scales with physics-based fi re models, using data from the 274 re-measured intensifi ed FIA plots. We generated a series of realistic stands for physics-based fi re simulations spanning different levels of canopy cover, tree mortality and wind speeds. We then developed a prototype application for a dynamic process that utilizes MODIS-derived year of attack maps to systematically modify fuels data used as inputs to operational fi re behavior models. The basic concept of the system is to modify the Landscape fi le (.LCP) common to all spatial landscape scale operational fi re behavior models. As a demonstration, we used the landscape fi re model FARSITE to test the use of the MPB-LCP Modifi er Tool for a small area within our larger study area. The area in question was heavily impacted by beetle attacks between 2006 and 2009. Using the same weather inputs, ignition location, and simulation Summary duration, we modeled fi re behavior for this test site, fi rst with fuels inputs available from LANDFIRE, which do not include The information being developed and distributed through Topo- beetle attack effects, and then with fuels modifi ed with the MPB- fi re has the potential to transform fi re management decision mak- LCP Modifi er Tool. The overall effect of the beetle attacks under ing. Fig. 4 provides an overview of linkages between Topofi re this weather scenario, as predicted by the MBP-LCP Modifi er data and applications and fi re management decisions. Tool, was a doubling of the area burned and a signifi cant increase Current fi re danger assessments and fi re management decisions in torching or passive crown fi re (Fig. 3). Changes in spread ignore terrain effects on climate and the physical fi re environ- rates at landscape scales were similar to those observed in the ment. Even if higher resolution data sources existed, operational stand scale simulations. Many aspects of MPB attack effects on fi re models lack the capability to address fi ne-scale terrain in- fuels continue to be an area of active research, but this work rep- duced variations in fuel moisture on fi re behavior and fi re spread. resents an important step in developing more robust fi re modeling Refi ned estimates of fuel moisture that account for topoclimate, systems that provide the best decision support for community and and fi re behavior simulations that address the spatial heterogene- fi refi ghter safety and for more effective ecosystem management. ity in fuel moisture and structural conditions will provide a key missing source of information about how emerging fi re incidents are likely to evolve, as well as the potential risks to life and property. In addition, high spatial resolution climate and hydrologic information have benefi ts that extend far beyond fi re management. Ultimately, Topofi re has the ability to greatly improve the situational awareness of wildland fi re managers by ensuring that they have the most up-to-date fi re environment information available when making time-sensitive decisions.

Figure 3. Results from a FARSITE ﬁ re behavior simulation. Two simulations were performed, one using standard conditions and a second incorporating a rate of spread multiplier derived from the MPB-LCP modiﬁ er tool.

4 Figure 4. Major connections between Topofi re remote sensing, high-resolution weather and fi re behavior products to support wildland fi re decision support.

Acknowledgements References

Many people contributed to the development of Topofi re and Holden, Z., A. Klene, R. Keefe and G. Moisen. 2013. Design and others are actively engaged in its continued development. We evaluation of an inexpensive solar radiation shield for monitoring gratefully acknowledge: Susan Frankenstein (Cold Regions surface air temperatures. Agric. For. Meteor. 180:281-285. Research Lab), Anna Klene (U. Montana Dept. of Geography), Holden, Z. and W.M. Jolly. 2011. Modeling topographic infl u- Jason Forthofer, Kyle Shannon and Greg Cohn (Missoula Fire ences on fuel moisture and fi re danger in complex terrain for Sciences Laboratory), Solomon Dobrowski (U. Montana Dept. of improved wildland fi re management decision support. For. Ecol. Forest Mgmt.), Charles Luce (USFS Rocky Mountain Research Mgmt. 262: 2133-2141. Station), Marco Maneta (U. Montana Dept. of Geosciences) and Rob Keefe (University of Idaho). Funding for this project was Frankenstein, S. and G. Koenig. 2004. Fast All-season Soil provided by NASA Earth Sciences through a Wildland Fire Ap- STrength (FASST). ERCD/CRREL report SR-04-1. Report pre- plications Grant. pared for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Washington, D.C. Verbesselt, J., R. Hyndman, G. Newnham and D. Culvenor. 2010. Detecting trend and seasonal change in image time series. Rem. Sens. Environ. 114:106–115.

Pass Creek, Alaska. Photo: J. Littell

5 The Global Treeline Range Expansion Experiment

Carissa D. Brown1, Steven D. Mamet2, Andrew J. Trant3 1Department of Geography, Memorial University, St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada 2Department of Biology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada 3School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

The Global Treeline Range Expansion Experiment (G-TREE) is a globally distributed collaborative project aimed at testing the generality of mechanisms driving treeline position in subarctic and alpine systems. Using a straightforward experimental design with seeding and substrate-altering treatments, our goal is to disentangle biotic and abiotic limitations on treeline recruitment. This initiative will provide empirical data on where, and under what circumstances, treeline expansion can occur globally.

The idea for the Global Treeline Range Expansion Experiment was fi rst developed at the fi nal meeting of PPS Arctic, an International Polar Year (IPY) research group focused on treeline dynamics under climate change. One of the patterns documented via PPS Arctic research is perhaps better referred to as a lack of Figure 1. The view of Coal Lake from the alpine zone of the Wolf Creek study area, Yukon Territory, Canada. Photo: Jill F. Johnstone. pattern, in that recruitment, growth, and infi lling at our studied treeline ecotones was highly variable (Harper et al. 2011). Why are we seeing those patterns? What mechanisms are shaping effi cient and cost-effective, minimizing the fi nancial burden on treeline ecotones locally, regionally, and globally? Our group participants, while yielding valuable data on treeline movement brainstormed ideas to move forward from our IPY fi ndings into potential. We followed the model of previously established the next stage of treeline research and to keep the collaborative globally distributed experiments (Fraser et al. 2013), recognizing research network active. Our discussion focused on the following the need for global synthesis of easily comparable data on key points: treeline systems. 1. Testing the processes driving the patterns observed during IPY requires experimentation. 2. With the conclusion of IPY, continuing research in subarctic and alpine regions will require a new funding source, which can be slow and diffi cult to procure. 3. The IPY initiative trained a large cohort of early-career researchers, eager to continue with northern research but with fewer opportunities to do so.

Following that discussion, a small group established a set of hypotheses related to processes driving treeline position that could be experimentally tested (Brown et al. 2013). We ﬁ rst targeted recruitment of researchers who were working at annually visited research sites where costs associated with ﬁ eld logistics Figure 2. View down the elevational gradient at Rif Blanc Forest, French Alps, towards closed forest stands dominated by Larix decidua, with would already be funded (e.g., Wolf Creek, Yukon Territory, Pinus uncinata and Sorbus aucuparia present. Photo: Hannah Loranger. Canada; Fig. 1). The protocols for G-TREE were designed to be

6 Our research network expanded with the addition of alpine research groups in Europe (Fig. 2), North America, and South America (Fig. 3), and the participation of individuals working at long-term monitoring sites around the world. G-TREE has truly been a collaborative network in that every member contributes to its development and success; thus, the G-TREE research design and protocols were improved by the invaluable contributions of all members. The addition of perspectives from researchers at European and tropical alpine sites has resulted in a set of protocols that can be implemented at any alpine or artic treeline around the world.

A key component of the protocol design was to allow for various levels of commitment by participants. Level I protocols Figure 4. Esther Frei establishing Level III G-TREE protocols in the require the most basic seeding-substrate treatments, and would Swiss Alps, which includes a herbivore exclusion treatment. Photo: be appropriate for an undergraduate research project. Levels II Christian Rixen. and III have more complex treatment combinations, involving multiple species, provenances, and a herbivore-exclusion treatment (Fig. 4). Levels II and III were designed to contribute Acknowledgements to a graduate student’s research program, and are currently being undertaken by several graduate students around the world. The development of G-TREE was aided by the valuable contributions of and discussions with Jill F. Johnstone, University of Saskatchewan, Christian Rixen and Sonja Wipf, WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research, Christian Körner, University of Basel, and all the members of the collaborative research network.

References

Brown, C.D., J.F. Johnstone, S.D. Mamet, & A.J. Trant. 2013. Global Treeline Range Expansion Experiment Field Protocols. www.treelineresearch.com. Available upon request. Harper, K.A., Danby, R.K., De Fields, D.L., Lewis, K.P., Trant, Figure 3. Tropical alpine forest at Sierra Nevada de Mérida in the Andes, A.J., Starzomski, B.M., Savidge, R. & Hermanutz, L. 2011. Tree Venezuela. Photo: Luis Daniel Llambi. spatial pattern within the forest-tundra ecotone: a comparison of sites across Canada. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 41: 479–489. Currently, more than 30 researchers are actively participating in the global experiment, with many sites established this past Fraser, L. H., Henry, H. A., Carlyle, C. N., White, S. R., summer, and collaborators in the southern hemisphere are now Beierkuhnlein, C., Cahill Jr, J. F., Casper, B.B., Cleland, E., preparing their sites for their rapidly approaching ﬁ eld season. Collins, S.L., Dukes, J.S. Knapp, A.K., Lind, E., Long, R., Luo, A second phase of G-TREE sites will be established during the Y., Reich, P.B., Smith, M.D., Sternberg, R., & Turkington, R. 2014 ﬁ eld season, as will monitoring of sites initiated in 2013. 2012. Coordinated distributed experiments: an emerging tool for To our knowledge, this is the most extensive globally-executed testing global hypotheses in ecology and environmental science. experiment on treeline expansion to date, and we look forward to Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 11: 147-155. expanding our network even further.

Learn more about G-TREE at treelineresearch.com.

7 An Experimental Approach to Determining Biophysical Constraints to Western Subalpine Forest RegeneraƟ on and MigraƟ on with Climate Change

Lara M. Kueppers University of California, Merced, California and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California

Western forests are highly sensitive to global and regional This basic research is critical input for vulnerability assessment climate variability and change, with increasing background and climate adaptation planning by resource and conservation mortality rates, increased frequency of large and severe wildﬁ res, managers. In topographically complex regions such as in and increased exposure to mountain pine beetle, all linked to Western mountains, simple expectations of upslope migration warmer temperatures or greater water stress (e.g., Westerling et of climatically suitable habitat may not be adequate, and in al. 2006, van Mantgem et al. 2009, Logan et al. 2010). Further, particular, may underestimate opportunities for low elevation the compound effects of global warming and natural climate refugia and/or overestimate capacity for upper elevation shifts variation have led to “global change type droughts” throughout (Dobrowski 2011), while neglecting effects on ecosystem health the West, resulting in massive dieback of conifer forests and watershed functions from changes in forest density and (Breshears et al. 2005, Allen et al. 2010). Yet, little attention has structure (Dolanc et al. 2013). Upper treeline in the Western U.S. been paid to how forest regeneration is affected by changing may be dynamically sensitive to changes in both temperature and climate, that is, whether changes will alter tree seed production, soil water availability, with sensitivity dependent on topographic seedling recruitment within present species ranges, and/or position, coincidence of radiation and water availability, and promote establishment of species beyond current upper and tree species. Seedlings, which are less buffered from climate and northern range boundaries, as predicted by simple bioclimatic resource variability, may be more sensitive than adults. Thus, envelope models (Rehfeldt et al. 2006). While the effect of predicting transient and long-term forest responses to climate climate on reproduction is a critical element that also needs change requires knowledge of climate sensitivities throughout further study, we have been examining how climate change may species’ life histories. To date, climate effects on regeneration affect tree recruitment from seed, thereby altering future forest have been a signiﬁ cant gap in knowledge, yet successful structure, composition, function, and distribution. We are linking adaptation hinges on improved understanding of this key phase in seedling demography to biophysical constraints on seedling forest development. metabolism, growth and mortality, and are comparing results across species and high- and low-elevation provenances to better predict how subalpine forests respond to changing climate.

Figure 1. Upper subalpine site in fall 2010. Tall upright poles allow heaters to be raised above snow in winter. Photo: A. Moyes

8 Questions and Methods

For the last several years we have had three major research questions to focus our work. 1. Will subalpine trees recruit into current alpine habitat and replace, or coexist with, alpine plant species as a result of climate change? 2. Will subalpine tree recruitment be impaired in species’ existing ranges as a result of climate change? 3. What ecophysiological, population genetic, and/or biogeochemical factors infl uence climate-induced changes in subalpine tree recruitment within and outside species’ current Figure 3. Schematic of the Alpine Treeline Warming Experiment (alpine ranges? spp plots not described here). Each year, sixty seedling plots are sown with high- and low-elevation limber pine and Engelmann spruce (in To address these questions, we established the Alpine Treeline four separate quadrants), and high- and low-elevation lodgepole pine (in Warming Experiment (ATWE) in 2008-2009, three sets of two-way transects through the middle of two quadrants each). Diagram: common gardens subject to factorial warming x watering L. Kueppers treatments along an elevation gradient at Niwot Ridge, in the Front Range of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The Alpine Each site has 20 3-m diameter plots with 5 replicate plots site is above current treeline and is potential habitat into which assigned to each of four groups: Control, Heated, Heated + subalpine conifer species could recruit with future climate Watered, and Watered. Overhead IR heaters set to a constant change. The Upper Subalpine site is in the alpine-treeline output are used to advance the timing of snowmelt and elevate ecotone, near the climatically “cool” edge of subalpine forest plant and soil temperatures during the snow-free season. (Fig. 1). This zone may remain marginally suitable or perhaps Watering rates (applied manually each week during the growing become more suitable for subalpine trees with climate warming. season) have been 2.5 mm wk-1 since 2010, an amount meant The Lower Subalpine site is just above the lower elevation, to compensate for the drying effects of heating. We installed “warm” edge of subalpine forest (Fig. 2). This zone may remain ECTM and 5TM soil moisture and temperature sensors (Decagon suitable or become less suitable habitat with climate warming. Devices) at 5-10 cm and 15-20 cm depth and record soil Weather station data from 2010-2012 indicate that the snow-free microclimate conditions every 15 minutes. Each experimental period is approximately one month longer at the treeline site, plot is divided into four adjacent 1m2 quadrants, which are sown where krummholz and fl ag trees act as snow fences to trap blown each fall with two of six seed types: Picea engelmannii, Pinus snow, than at either the alpine or lower subalpine site, and that fl exilis, and Pinus contorta collected locally from near treeline sites differ by more than 6 m s-1 in average wind speed and 4.6 °C (11,000 ft) and near the lower limit of subalpine forest (10,000 in daily mean temperature, over the same period. ft) (Figs. 3, 4). We track the number of seeds sown and number of seedlings surviving to October and to just after snowmelt each year to quantify treatment effects on 1st, 2nd and 3rd year survival, differentiating winter from summer mortality. We maintain hardware cloth cages over quadrants to limit (albeit imperfectly) granivory and seedling herbivory.

Initial Findings

In fall 2008 (prior to active climate manipulations), we sowed a subset of the plots with P. ﬂ exilis and P. engelmannii seed, and in spring 2009, also sowed the same plots with greenhouse-started transplants. Both species emerged at very low rates (<10%) in the alpine, with zero survival of P. engelmannii germinants Figure 2. Miles Daly waters a heated and watered plot in the lower and low (2%) survival of P. ﬂ exilis to the end of the 2nd season subalpine forest site in September 2010. Photo: L. Kueppers (Castanha et al. 2012), indicating strong bottlenecks to tree

9 recruitment in the alpine during both germination and early community and soil nitrogen responses to manipulations. Plans seedling survival. Emergence and survival were stronger in LSA for the next phase of work include adjustments to heating and and USA, but only ~4% of P. fl exilis emergents survived to the watering manipulations to better quantify demographic thresholds end of the 2nd growing season (Castanha et al. 2012), indicating (e.g., for an extreme wet year), examination of genetic fi ltering by a stronger survival than germination constraint. Ecophysiological site and treatments using SNPs, and testing a conceptual model measurements on the transplanted P. fl exilis seedlings suggest relating demography, root growth and belowground microclimate that they are able to assimilate carbon at high rates in the over the growing season. We also look forward to making our alpine – higher than at the other two sites – suggesting lack of a results useful to the land management community as scientists signifi cant cold limitation to carbon uptake in the alpine during and managers work together to develop adaptation strategies in the core growing season (Reinhardt et al. 2011). At the same the face of climate change. time, warming can diminish P. fl exilis seedling carbon gain at all sites by reducing surface soil moisture, which reduces stomatal Information on the ATWE can be found at https://alpine. conductance and carbon assimilation (Moyes et al. 2013). ucmerced.edu/pub/htdocs/. The project has been funded by the Further, fi rst year P. fl exilis seedling survival is correlated with DOE Offi ce of Science, and is a collaboration among PIs at surface soil moisture even at and above treeline and is inversely multiple institutions: L. Kueppers (UC Merced, LBNL), J. Harte related to longer, warmer growing seasons (Moyes et al. 2013), (UC Berkeley), M. Torn (UC Berkeley, LBNL), M. Germino effects exacerbated by heating. Understanding the interacting (USGS), and J. Mitton (Univ Colo, Boulder). ecophysiological mechanisms that yield microclimate constraints to seedling emergence and survival, and how they vary by species and population, is a primary research priority. References

Ongoing and Planned Work Allen, C. D., A. K. Macalady, H. Chenchouni, D. Bachelet, N. McDowell, M. Vennetier, T. Kitzberger, A. Rigling, D. D. Ongoing work at this unique experimental facility includes Breshears, E. H. Hogg, P. Gonzalez, R. Fensham, Z. Zhang, J. analysis of multi-year seedling demographic outcomes, Castro, N. Demidova, J.-H. Lim, G. Allard, S. W. Running, A. quantiﬁ cation of ecophysiological stress thresholds for all Semerci, and N. Cobb. 2010. A global overview of drought and three species, genetic comparisons of high- and low-elevation heat-induced tree mortality reveals emerging climate change risks provenances using single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), for forests. Forest Ecology and Management 259:660-684. development of models that link population demography with biophysical thresholds to estimate climate change effects Breshears, D. D., N. S. Cobb, P. M. Rich, K. P. Price, C. D. on population structure, and examination of soil microbial Allen, R. G. Balice, W. H. Romme, J. H. Kastens, M. L. Floyd, J. Belnap, J. J. Anderson, O. B. Myers, and C. W. Meyer. 2005. Regional vegetation die-offs in response to global-change-type drought. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 42:15144-15148. Castanha, C., M. S. Torn, M. J. Germino, B. Weibel, and L. M. Kueppers. 2012. Conifer seedling recruitment across a gradient from forest to alpine tundra: effects of species, provenance, and site. Plant Ecology & Diversity doi: 10.1080/17550874.2012.716087:1-12. Dobrowski, S. Z. 2011. A climatic basis for microrefugia: the inﬂ uence of terrain on climate. Global Change Biology 17:1022- 1035. Dolanc, C. R., J. H. Thorne, and H. D. Safford. 2013. Widespread shifts in the demographic structure of subalpine forests in the Figure 4. Jon DeCoste sows conifer seed collected in 2012 and 2013 Sierra Nevada, California, 1934 to 2007. Global Ecology and into an experimental plot at the upper subalpine site in October 2013. Biogeography 22:264-276. Photo: W. Brown.

10 Logan, J. A., W. W. Macfarlane, and L. Willcox. 2010. Whitebark Reinhardt, K., C. Castanha, M. J. Germino, and L. M. Kueppers. pine vulnerability to climate-driven mountain pine beetle 2011. Ecophysiological variation in two provenances of Pinus disturbance in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Ecological fl exilis seedlings across an elevation gradient from forest to Applications 20:895-902. alpine. Tree Physiology 31:615-625. Moyes, A. B., C. Castanha, M. J. Germino, and L. M. Kueppers. van Mantgem, P., N. Stephenson, J. Byrne, L. Daniels, J. 2013. Warming and the dependence of limber pine (Pinus fl exilis) Franklin, P. Fule, M. Harmon, A. Larson, J. Smith, and A. Taylor. establishment on summer soil moisture within and above its 2009. Widespread increase of tree mortality rates in the western current elevation range. Oecologia 171:271-282. United States. Science 323:521. Rehfeldt, G. E., N. L. Crookston, M. V. Warwell, and J. S. Evans. Westerling, A. L., H. G. Hidalgo, D. Cayan, and T. W. Swetnam. 2006. Empirical analyses of plant-climate relationships for the 2006. Warming and earlier spring increase Western U.S. forest Western United States. International Journal of Plant Sciences wildfi re activity. Science 313:940-943. 167:1123-1150.

View enroute to the Niwot Ridge Long Term Ecological Research site during the autumn MtnClim 2012 ﬁ eld trip. Photo: C. Millar

11 BREVIA Moisture LimitaƟ on to Tree Establishment Extends All the Way Up into the Alpine Zone

Andrew B. Moyes University of California Merced, Merced, California and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California

Moyes, A., Castanha, C., Germino, M,, and Kueppers L. 2013. Seedlings emerged in midsummer, about 5–8 weeks after Warming and the dependence of limber pine (Pinus fl exilis) es- snowmelt. Low temperature was not observed to limit seedling tablishment on summer soil moisture within and above its current photosynthesis or respiration between emergence and season’s elevation range. Oecologia 171:271-282. end, and thus experimental warming did not appear to reduce cold limitation at high elevation. Instead, physiological measurements (photosynthesis, respiration, and midday stem water potential) Climate change is projected to alter the geographic distributions from all sites indicated a prevailing effect of summer moisture of mountain plant species, in part by affecting where individuals stress on photosynthesis and carbon balance. Despite marked can establish from seed. Subalpine conifers of the western United differences in vegetation cover and meteorological conditions States grow slowly after germination, and seedlings are likely to across sites, volumetric soil moisture content below 16 and 8% face limitations associated with the near-surface environment, consistently corresponded with moderate and severe indications particularly at their high and low elevation distribution of seedling drought stress. Seedling survival was greater in boundaries. In their recent paper published in the journal watered plots than in heated plots, and negatively related to Oecologia, Moyes et. al tested the hypothesis that warming soil growing degree days (integrated soil temperature over the promotes uphill redistribution of subalpine tree populations by growing season, Fig. 2) and duration of exposure to soil moisture reducing cold limitation at high elevation and enhancing drought below 8%. stress at low elevation. The authors concluded that seasonal moisture stress and high The study was part of the alpine treeline warming experiment soil surface temperature imposed a strong limitation to limber (ATWE, https://alpine.ucmerced.edu/pub/htdocs) at Niwot pine seedling establishment across a broad elevation gradient, Ridge in Colorado’s Front Range (see page 8). In the ATWE, including above alpine treeline, and that these limitations are collaborators from UC Merced, UC Berkeley, and the U.S. likely to be enhanced by further climate warming. This was Geological Survey are sowing seeds of limber pine (Pinus contrary to expectations that soil moisture would be abundant fl exilis), Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii) and lodgepole near the upper tree limit, and shows a potential for drought effects pine (Pinus contorta) into common garden plots with treatment of warming to offset the benefi t of alleviating cold limitations at combinations of infrared heating and summer water addition, at high elevation. A greater importance of heat and drought stress sites positioned in lower subalpine forest, the treeline ecotone, during seedling establishment would complicate predictions of and alpine tundra (Fig. 1). During the snow-free growing future uphill forest advance based on historic cold limitation season, infrared heaters raise average soil temperature by around alone. 1.5-4.5 °C.

Moyes et. al assessed ﬁ rst-year limber pine seedlings at all three sites for physiological performance and survival until the end of the 2010 growing season, a year with near-average precipitation.

12 Figure 1. Photograph of the alpine site (above treeline), one of three sites that span an elevation gradient from forest (3,060 m, 10,040 feet) to alpine (3,540 m, 11,615 feet). At each site warming and watering Figure 2. Survival of ﬁ rst-year seedlings of limber pine decreased treatments are applied to 20 common garden plots, within which with growing season degree days, an integrated measure of temperature subalpine conifers are seeded each year. The photo was taken in late exposure over the entire growing season. Temperature data were from summer, when heat and moisture stress were occurring, leaving tundra sensors buried vertically to measure average soil T at 5-10 cm. Red vegetation dry and senescent or dormant. symbols are from heated plots and blue symbols are from unheated plots. Shapes indicate site: circles were alpine, diamonds were at treeline, and triangles were from lower subalpine forest.

Upper subalpine site in October 2013. Photo: W. Brown.

13 BREVIA Large-Scale Foraging Behavior in the American Pika: Linking Behavior and Environment

Justine A. Smith1 and Liesl P. Erb2 1Department of Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 2Natural and Environmental Sciences, Western State Colorado University, Gunnison, Colorado

Smith, J. A. and L. P. Erb. 2013. Patterns of selective caching live, we sought to investigate potential relationships between behavior of a generalist herbivore, the American pika (Ochotona environmental variables and selective caching behavior (Smith princeps). Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research 45(3):396-403. and Erb 2013).

The American pika (Ochotona princeps) has become a species of interest in recent years due to its predicted responses to climate change (Beever et al. 2011, Erb et al. 2011). There is growing concern and controversy regarding the ability for pikas to persist in a warming world due to their sensitivity to high temperatures (Smith 1974, Wilkening et al. 2011, Beever et al. 2011). Although much of the current research on pikas either employs survey techniques to detect presence (Erb et al. 2011) or uses climate modeling to predict future available habitat (Calkins et al. 2012), understanding pika behavioral responses to environmental variability is essential for the prediction of the impact of climate on pika population persistence. To our knowledge, little to no recent work has been conducted to examine behavioral responses of the American pika to environmental factors related to climate. Figure 1. Pika haypile dominated by graminoids and Castilleja Foraging and caching behavior has been well studied in the occidentalis. Photo: J.A. Smith American pika. Because they do not hibernate, pikas cache vegetation in haypiles during the summer months in order Foraging is one of the most fundamental behaviors for individual to build a food reserve for harsh winter conditions in which survival, and selection of forage often depends on the quality they cannot forage (Fig. 1). As a species, pikas are considered of other available resources in the environment (Stephens generalists and do not specialize on particular plant species (Ivins and Krebs 1986). Foraging behaviors are predicted to change 1984, Smith and Weston 1990), although individual populations based on energetic and nutrient requirements, internal stress, exhibit selective foraging behavior among available vegetation. and time restrictions. Pikas throughout the southern Rocky Researchers examining many different populations of pikas Mountains experience a wide array of environments characterized have documented a variety of patterns in pika selective foraging by differing vegetation communities, precipitation types, and caching. These patterns include selection of plant size and frequencies, and intensities, average and maximum temperatures, morphology (Huntly et al. 1986, Hudson et al. 2008), spatial and presence or absence of rock-ice features. These site-specifi c distribution of plants (Krear 1965, Millar and Zwickel 1972, differences are likely to infl uence the levels of heat stress, activity Roach et al. 2001, Morrison 2007), nutrition (Millar and Zwickel budgets, and limiting nutrients of individual pikas, potentially 1972, West 1980, Morrison 2007), presence of secondary altering selective preferences among populations. However, compounds (Dearing 1996, Dearing 1997, Gliwicz et al. 2006), because of the limited spatial scale of previous work on pika and novelty (Ivins 1984). Many of these studies not only attribute caching behavior, pika forage selection is understood only with selectivity to different plant characteristics, but contradict the respect to the particular environmental conditions present in each fi ndings of those proposed by others. However, each of these independent study. Our research begins to examine differences in studies was conducted at only one site or two neighboring selective caching with respect to environmental variation. sites. Given the wide diversity of habitats in which pikas

14 and restricted our measures of quality to nutritional variables. The environmental variables investigated included total annual precipitation, mean summer temperature, elevation, and latitude. (For further information on sampling design and analytical methods, see Smith and Erb 2013.)

Our results indicate that pikas differentially select vegetation for their winter haypiles with regard to both the external environment and the quality of available vegetation (Fig. 3). However, they may select for characteristics of vegetation using different environmental cues. In particular, we found that although pikas nearly always select for higher water and nitrogen content, they reduce the degree of selectivity for nitrogen as it becomes more available in the environment. In contrast, the magnitude of selection for water content remained constant despite the water content of available plants. Selectivity for high water content was negatively correlated with elevation, and selectivity for high nitrogen content was positively correlated with average summer temperature (Fig. 4). Neither elevation nor average summer temperature were correlated with available vegetation quality, indicating that the selectivity was a function of the environmental factor rather than its relationship to available vegetation. Figure 2. Map of 13 study sites in the southern Rocky Mountains. From Smith and Erb 2013. Explanations for the patterns observed are derived from known interactions between pikas and their environment. We propose that lower activity levels in hot environments (Smith 1974) may We investigated large-scale patterns of selective caching to promote greater selectivity of high quality foods at high ambient determine which characteristics of plants showed evidence of temperatures to compensate for reduced caching time. The selection and which environmental variables correlated with tradeoff between thermal regulation and foraging behavior should patterns of observed selectivity (Smith and Erb 2013). Our study be further studied to investigate this hypothesis. The relationship included 13 historical pika sites that ranged across three states between water content selectivity and elevation may be a result and 600 m of elevation (Fig. 2). For this analysis, we chose two of differential seasonal variability in water availability at low features of plant quality that have been examined in the literature and high elevation sites. High elevation sites often have longer with conﬂ icting results: water and nitrogen content. Because of periods of snowpack and greater prevalence of rock-ice features, the large spatial scale of our study and a desire to sample each both of which provide consistent free water sources (Millar and site at approximately equivalent phenological stages, we were Westfall 2008, Millar and Westfall 2010). Although pikas have unable to collect data on plant morphology or spatial structure occasionally been observed to consume free water, the prevalence

Figure 3. Haypile quality as a function of abundant available vegetation quality for a) nitrogen content and (b) water content. The dashed line represents the expected relationship given no selectivity. Each point represents the weighted average quality at an individual study site. Haypile quality was higher than available vegetation with regard to both nitrogen content (p < 0.01) and water content (p < 0.001). Selectivity for nitrogen content declined as it became more available in the environment (p < 0.05). From Smith and Erb 2013.

15 Figure 4. Relationships between (a) nitrogen content and mean summer temperature (R2 = 0.433, p < 0.05) and (b) water content and elevation (R2 = 0.366, p < 0.05). From Smith and Erb 2013.

of the behavior is unknown (C. Ray pers. comm.). Low elevation Calkins, M. T., E. a. Beever, K. G. Boykin, J. K. Frey, and M. C. sites without reliable water sources may foster greater selectivity Andersen. 2012. Not-so-splendid isolation: modeling climate- for forage with high water content. mediated range collapse of a montane mammal Ochotona princeps across numerous ecoregions. Ecography 35:780–791. Although more work is needed to test the mechanisms of Dearing, M. D. 1996. Disparate determinants of summer selection, we have described for the fi rst time that pika and winter diet selection of a generalist herbivore, Ochotona caching decisions are variable over space and are correlated to princeps. Oecologia 108:467-478. environmental conditions. Pika caching behavior appears to be complex and may respond to both internal state and external Dearing, M. D. 1997. The manipulation of plant toxins by a food- conditions. This result provides insight into how pikas may hoarding herbivore, Ochotona princeps. Ecology 78:774-781. respond to changing climactic conditions in the southern Rocky Erb, L. P., C. Ray, and R. Guralnick. 2011. On the generality of Mountains with regard to their foraging behavior. However, a climate-mediated shift in the distribution of the American pika due to the limited temporal scope of this study, we did not (Ochotona princeps). Ecology 92:1730–1735. examine climate change explicitly. Instead, we chose to explore Gliwicz, J., S. Pagacz, and J. Witczuk. 2006. Strategy of spatial variability in selective caching and its relationship to food plant selection in the Siberian northern pika, Ochotona environmental heterogeneity to investigate potential drivers hyperborea. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research 38:54-59. of selective caching. To further explore relationships between Hudson, J. M. G., S. F. Morrison, and D. S. Hik. 2008. Effects of climate and caching behavior, research integrating haypile leaf size on forage selection by collared pikas, Ochotona collaris. quality, climate, and pika overwinter survival is needed. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research 40:481–486. In this initial study of patterns of selective caching behavior Huntly, N. J., A. T. Smith, and B. L. Ivins. 1986. Foraging across an extensive elevational and latitudinal gradient, we hope behavior of the pika (Ochotona princeps), with comparisons of to have set the groundwork for further studies of differential grazing versus haying. Journal of Mammalogy 67:139–148. foraging decisions over longer temporal scales. Due to the Ivins, B. L. 1984. Territoriality, haypile function, and anti- American pika’s diverse behavioral profi le and apparent foraging predator behavior in the pika, Ochotona princeps. Doctoral plasticity, future work on the relationship between pikas and dissertation. University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI. climate should bridge foraging decisions with their ramifi cations Krear, H. R. 1965. An ecological and ethological study of on fi tness and persistence in dynamic and changing landscapes. the pika (Ochotona princeps saxatilis) in the Front Range of References Colorado. Doctoral dissertation. University of Colorado, Boulder, CO. Beever, E. A., C. Ray, J. L. Wilkening, P. F. Brussard, and P. W. Millar, C. I. and R.D. Westfall. 2008. Rock glaciers and Mote. 2011. Contemporary climate change alters the pace and periglacial rock-ice features in the Sierra Nevada: classifi cation, drivers of extinction. Global Change Biology 17:2054–2070. distribution, and climatic relationships. Quaternary International 188:90-104.

16 Millar, C. I., and R. D. Westfall. 2010. Distribution and climatic Smith, A. T. 1974. The distribution and dispersal of pikas: relationships of the American pika (Ochotona princeps) in the inﬂ uences of behavior and climate. Ecology 55:1368-1376. Sierra Nevada and western Great Basin, U.S.A.; Periglacial Smith, A.T. and M. L. Weston. 1990 Ochotona princeps. landforms as refugia in warming climates. Arctic, Antarctic, and Mammalian Species 352:1-8. Alpine Research 42:76-88. Stephens, D. W. and J. R. Krebs. 1986. Foraging Theory. Millar, J. S., and F. C. Zwickel. 1972. Characteristics and Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. ecological signiﬁ cant of hay piles of pikas. Mammalia 36:657– West, E. 1980. Adaptive patterns in behavior of the Sierran 667. pika, Ochotona princeps. Doctoral dissertation. University of Morrison, S. F. 2007. Foraging behavior and population dynamics California, Davis, CA. of collared pikas, Ochotona collaris. Doctoral dissertation. Wilkening, J. L., C. Ray, E. a. Beever, and P. F. Brussard. University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada. 2011. Modeling contemporary range retraction in Great Basin Roach, W. J., N. Huntly, and R. Inouye. 2001. Talus pikas (Ochotona princeps) using data on microclimate and fragmentation mitigates the effects of pikas, Ochotona princeps, microhabitat. Quaternary International 235:77–88. on high alpine meadows. Oikos 92:315–324.

Pika haying. Photo: J.A. Smith

17 BREVIA Taking a Census of California Rock Glaciers from Space

Lin Liu1, Constance I. Millar2, Robert D. Westfall2, and Howard Zebker1 1Department of Geophysics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 2USDA Forest Service, Pacifi c Southwest Research Station, Albany, California

Liu, L., Millar, C., Westfall, R., and Zebker H. 2013. Surface Rock Glacier Inventory motion of active rock glaciers in the Sierra Nevada, California, USA: Inventory and a case study using InSAR. The Cryosphere 7: The key dataset of our inventory is rock glacier surface spead, 1109-1119, doi:10.5194/tc-7-1109-2013. plotted as a snapshot in late summer of 2007 in Fig. 1. The regional-mean speed was 53 cm/year (annual equivalent). Spatially, our inventory shows that active rock glaciers tend to Rock glaciers are abundant throughout cirques and valleys of the cluster, implying a signifi cant infl uence of regional conditions central and southern Sierra Nevada ranges (Millar and Westfall, such as climate and topography on their occurrence. Moreover, 2008). Active rock glaciers creep downslope cohesively as a rock glaciers in the southern Sierra Nevada moved faster with a consequence of the deformation of internal ice (Haeberli et al., larger spatial variability than those to the north. 2006). Their kinematic states are of scientifi c interests because the spatial and temporal changes of surface fl ow are indicators of changes in regional and local climatic conditions. However, most rock glaciers are remotely located, making it diffi cult to measure their surface fl ow in the fi eld. We applied a remote sensing tool named Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) to radar images obtained by a Japanese satellite from about 700 km altitude to map surface speed at 59 active rock glaciers in the region. The inventory we compiled describes the kinematic state of these rock glaciers and is available online at http://www.the- cryosphere.net/7/1109/2013/tc-7-1109-2013-supplement.zip

What is InSAR?

By measuring phase differences between two radar images taken at different times, InSAR makes an interferogram that maps ground surface motion in the satellite’s line-of-sight direction during the time interval of the radar images. Such a map of ground motion covers a large area (typically 100 km by 100 km) with a high accuracy at the centimeter to millimeter level and with a high spatial resolution of tens of meters. Although InSAR has become a standard tool in geophysical studies such as earthquake and volcano deformation (Bürgmann et al., 2000), its applications in alpine studies remain scarce. In this study, we show that the InSAR technique has the potentials of both Figure 1. Map of active rock glaciers in the Sierra Nevada of California. mapping rock glacier motions in a regional-scale and providing The size and color of the circles represent the size and speed of the rock detailed, high resolution imaging in both space and time. glaciers, respectively. The ﬂ ow speed estimates are for the late summer of 2007.

18 Table 1. Summary of the active rock glaciers in the Sierra Nevada based on InSAR.

Figure 3. Time series of the InSAR-estimated speed at the cross marker on Fig. 2b (triangles with error-bars). Surface speed lagged about three months behind air temperature (solid line, one-month moving averages In addition to surface speed, our inventory also documents the of daily temperature records) size, geometry, elevation, moving direction, and aspect ratio of these active rock glaciers. Table 1 summarizes the regional mean High-resolution (10 m) InSAR maps such as the one shown in of major parameters. Azimuth distribution is predominanly in the Fig. 2b reveal high speeds of 50 cm/yr at the furrow-ridge system N-NE direction, controlled by the aspect of solar radiation and and stable areas such as the southeast fl ank and the depression snow accumulation. area between the two fl owing branches. Using a series of radar images taken every 46 days in 2007 and 2008, we were able to A Case Study of the Mount Gibbs Rock Glacier produce time series of the surface motion (Fig. 3). It shows a strong seasonal variation of surface speed, more than double in Compared with fi eld measurements, InSAR provides a the fall from its minimum in the spring and lagged about three more spatially complete assessment of the surface fl ow at months behind the seasonal cycle of air temperature variations. individual rock glaciers in fi ne spatial and temporal details. We Our fi ndings suggest the necessity of long and dense observation demonstrated this potential using the Mount Gibbs rock glacier as records to separate long-term changes in rock glacier kinematics an example. This is a tongue-shaped rock glacier located in Gibbs associated with climate change from seasonal variations. Canyon along the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada, 10 km southwest of Lee Vining. Transverse furrows and longitudinal ridges are visible along two lobes in the middle and lower parts (Fig. 2a).

Figure 2. The Mount Gibbs rock glacier (a) and its surface speed during September-December 2007 (b). White areas within the black boundary are places where no reliable InSAR measurements could be made.

19 Open Questions References

Further studies are required to elucidate the underlying Millar, C. I. and Westfall, R. D. 2008. Rock glaciers and related geomorphological mechanisms for a few of our key ﬁ ndings. periglacial landforms in the Sierra Nevada, CA, USA; inventory, For instance, we found that rock glacier speeds are higher distribution and climatic relationships, Quatern. International in the southern than in the central Sierra Nevada, implying 188: 90–104, doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2007.06.004, available at: strong inﬂ uences of local factors such as thickness, ice content, http://nsidc.org/data/ggd652.html hydrological conditions, and debris content. But it remains Haeberli, W., Hallet, B., Arenson, L., Elconin, R., Humlum, O., unclear which factors play a major role in this spatial difference. Kääb, A., Kaufmann, V., Ladanyi, B., Matsuoka, N., Springman, What causes the strong the seasonal variations in speed at the S., and Mühll, D. V. 2006. Permafrost creep and rock glacier Mount Gibbs rock glacier? Simple thermal-kinematic-couple dynamics, Permafrost Periglac. 17: 189–214, doi:10.1002/ models such as the one used by Kääb et al. (2007) could not ppp.561. explain the magnitude or the phase we observed in this study. Kääb, A., Frauenfelder, R., and Roer, I. 2007. On the response of rockglacier creep to surface temperature increase, Global Planet. Change 56: 172–187, doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2006.07.005.

Bristlecone pine skeleton, White Mtns, CA. Photo: S. Weiss

20 An Interview with the Founders and Leaders of GLORIA: The Global ObservaƟ on Research IniƟ aƟ ve in Alpine Regions

Change is underfoot at the Vienna, Austria headquarters of GLORIA, and that bodes well for the future of this global mountain observatory program. Pioneering scientist Georg Grabherr, who brought the GLORIA program into international status and has been Director since the program’s start, has recently retired, while Harald Pauli, long-time scientist with the program who documented early responses in alpine ﬂ ora to climate change and helped develop the GLORIA protocol, has assumed Georg’s role as Director. These transitions have been seamless for the worldwide GLORIA network, which looks to Vienna for coordination and program mentorship. The recent activities in Vienna seal a strong future for this critical alpine monitoring program. I took the occasion to interview Georg and Hari on their retrospective and prospective views for GLORIA. – Editor The GLORIA coordination ofﬁ ce is located at the Department of Conservation Biology, Vegetation and Landscape Ecology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria GLORIA International Website: www.gloria.ac.at/ GLORIA North America: www.fs.fed.us/psw/cirmount/gloria/

Back Story (adapted from the International GLORIA website)

The purpose of GLORIA (the Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments) is to establish and maintain a world-wide, long-term observation network in alpine environments. Vegetation and temperature data collected at the Figure 1. Worldwide GLORIA sites. GLORIA sites are used for discerning trends in species diversity ecological research in alpine environments are welcome to and temperature. contribute. GLORIA site managers are responsible for the establishment and maintenance of sites, and for using the GLORIA goals are to document changes in biodiversity and standardized GLORIA protocols. vegetation patterns caused by climate change in the world's high mountain ecosystems. GLORIA aims to collect high-quality Coordination of GLORIA is undertaken by the GLORIA Offi ce at baseline and monitoring data by establishing: 1) a multi-site and Vienna and includes the following: long-term monitoring network, comprising Multi-Summit Target 1. Scientifi c coordination, supervision, and support of fi eld Regions, which are established at a world-wide level; and 2) a work and data analysis in cooperation with GLORIA site network of sophisticated long-term research sites, the GLORIA managers and researchers; Master Sites, which promote integrative research on alpine responses to climate change. 2. Administration and technical communication with network members; The strength of the GLORIA network is its simple approach, 3. Maintenance and development of the central GLORIA which is to promote the establishment of a large number of database and communication structures; implementation and sites within and across continents. The establishment and long- coordination of GLORIA-related research projects; term maintenance of such a large-scale, multi-site network 4. Building and consolidating interfaces to other networks and requires a world-wide community of committed ecologists. It programs in the area of global change research, and to inter- wholly depends on researchers who are willing to establish the governmental research bodies; and foundations of a long-term program, which yields results for future generations. The development of GLORIA is an ongoing 5. Raising the level of public awareness of the ecological process, and individuals and institutions with an interest in implications of climate change.

21 An Interview with Georg Grabherr and Hari Pauli *IIASA International Institute for Applied System Analysis; Laxenburg; Austria Georg Reﬂ ects: ** Unfortunately, Michael Gottfried suffered a major stroke last year, and, probably, will not return to work Connie: When did you ﬁ rst consider developing the idea for an international network to monitor response of alpine plants to climate change, and what prompted this idea?

Georg: Soon after taking the chair as professor of Conservation Biology, Vegetation and Landscape ecology at the University of Vienna in 1986 I met by chance Al Solomon, who just had just been appointed to direct the programme at IIASA* for developing a sustainable model on how vegetation might react to climate change. He invited a strong group for a brainstorming session (including, among others, D. Billings, I. Woodward, H. Shugart, Georg in Glacier National Park, MT at a and C. Körner) to discuss basics for the requested modelling. 2013 GLORIA - North Core scientists executing these ideas at the time included C. America mini-summit. Prentice, W. Cramer, and R. Leemans, who, subsequently become Photo: C. Millar key leaders in climate change research. Thinking about how to contribute, I remembered Braun-Blanquet’s paper on fl oristic changes on Piz Linard, the highest summit of Silvretta at the Connie: The GLORIA Multi-Summit target-region approach has border between Austria and Switzerland. Just at the same time proven highly effective in monitoring change in the alpine zone, two young students, H. Pauli and M. Gottfried, came across me, and expandable worldwide to many mountain regions. Can you asking for opportunities to conduct mountain ecological research. explain how the monitoring protocol was developed? Did you We repeated Braun-Blanquet’s approach, and found that species engage alpine scientists from around the world? What was the richness at the limits of plant life had increased, indicating process you used to develop a consensus approach? that the already observable warming was also ecologically effective. To our surprise we got these results published in Nature Georg: The most important lesson we learned after revisiting (Grabherr, Gottfried, and Pauli 1994). Our paper was recognised more than 30 summits in 1992-1993 was that precise positioning widely by the research community and also in the media (e.g. is essential. Harald Pauli reviewed the study designs from more New York Times, USA Today, front page). than 200 publications, but for only about 35 summits had any of those researchers monitored essential data, e.g., at what This overwhelming response was the stimulus to think about an elevation they started the surveys. Usually monitoring plots were extension to Europe and, fi nally, to a global network. A broad set on a mountain slope following the elevation gradient from request to the international scientifi c community, asking for upper treeline up to the nival zone (“transect” or “single slope” the willingness to jointly build a global observation network approach). As an alternative Harald Pauli and Michael Gottfried on climate-change impacts on alpine plant diversity, yielded a developed what we later called the “Multi Summit approach”. tremendously positive response. GLORIA was in essence born Summits at different elevations in a “Target Region” are selected in this manner, though at the time not named as such. GLORIA, as sample sites, and 16 quadrats near the top are placed in 4 as an acronym for “Global Observation Research Initiative in clusters exposed to the four cardinal directions (Fig. 2). Alpine Environments”, was used for the fi rst time in the project proposal to the European Union research programme in 1999. From its very start, the GLORIA monitoring protocol was We proposed a pilot study to test the newly advanced monitoring designed in view of a globally applicable approach along three methodology in the major mountain regions of Europe. In the core principles: evaluation process, we succeeded with a rating close to the Maximum. There were 18 research groups involved. The two COMPARABILITY: Summits with standard plots as students became – so to say - the GLORIA masters since**. comparison units;

22 SIMPLICITY: A clearly defi ned protocol, readily repeatable; focused the attention on the great monitoring potential of CHEAP/TIME SAVING: Access to long-term funding is mountain biota; usually not available; at the uppermost sites the vegetation 1997: The broad response from the scientifi c community to period suitable for recording does not last longer than 2-4 be willing to join the international alpine species monitoring weeks. initiative; 2001: Successful application of the pilot project GLORIA- Considering these principles and our combined fi eld experiences, Europe; we developed rules such as: 2004: GLORIA fi eld manual published as offi cial publication - How to select mountain systems as Target Regions (same of the European Commission; geology and climate); 2012: Results of pilot project GLORIA-Europe of GLORIA - How to design a plot arrangement at the summits that provided the fi rst comparison of sites for an entire continent. A provides adequate statistical power (list of species of vascular reviewer stated “by far the best data set”; plants, optional mosses, lichens); - What to list and count (observer error, sparse species, “the In general of I am proud that GLORIA has stimulated alpine log-normal devil”, species identifi cation); plant ecology studies tremendously; GLORIA has successfully - How and what kind of temperature measurements should be established sites in more than 100 target regions; and the performed; GLORIA program has never experienced internal confl icts.

- How to handle the data. Connie: Have there been any especially surprising or unexpected results from the GLORIA network? To adapt, and/or improve rules, the GLORIA coordination team organised meetings or sent out circulars. Most of this Georg: Uncertainties are unavoidable in climate change research, coordination work was ﬁ nanced by European funding (Pilot- its effect on alpine biota in particular. In fact, the only certainty is project “GLORIA-Europe”). GLORIA has had close links the unexpected. To list a few: to international programmes such as IGBP, MAB, MRI- - Mediterranean mountains are also affected by dry summers; GLOCHAMORE, and GMBA. species richness has not increased;

Figure 2. GLORIA Target - Even under strong warming > 3°C micro-refugia might allow Region design. local populations to survive; at Master Station “Schrankogel” typical nival plants were found in a cold air drainage at tree line; - Infi lling effects have to be distinguished from migration effects; there are many alpine species with a ruderal strategy; - Clonality is a common character to quite a number of species: for me the Carex curvula story, occupying large areas in the Alps, is one of the most exciting examples of how careful observations revealed important knowledge: C. curvula forms clones that grow like fairy rings, which later disintegrate. Swiss colleagues, applying DNA fi ngerprinting, provided evidence that genets of C. curvula germinated 5000 years ago, while some clones several 100 years old might occur as dwarf shrubs; - Even the early ecologists recognised several obvious mountain zones and ecotones, although upper treeline is the Connie: What would you consider the greatest success of the most striking. The alpine/nival ecotone, however, has been GLORIA program to date? either neglected or not studied in detail. The project “Mountain Limits” provided evidence that this ecotone is in fact at the Georg: There are several milestones that should be mentioned: elevation where summer snow is most variable and coincides with highest change (beta-diversity) in fl oristic composition. 1994: Our Nature paper on alpine plant species changes

23 Hari Responds: Hence, the key strengths are now in place: (1) A world-wide setting of standardised permanent plots Connie: You’ve also worked arranged along the fundamental climatic gradients in elevation, with the GLORIA Program since latitude, and longitude across the plant’s major biomes. its early days as Science Chair (2) The data sets include all vascular plant species occurring in and now take over as Program each plot. Even if some species remain persistent with hardly Director. What do you consider any visible change over decades, shifts in the composition of the key strengths of GLORIA all players can be highly indicative even over shorter periods of as you go forward in the next just a few years. decade? (3) Data analyses that included the fi rst resurvey cycle Hari: In the late 20th century, confi rmed this assumption by showing unprecedented when mountains became a focus results about wide-spread thermophilisation of alpine plant of global attention and the climate change debate and research communities and even decreasing species numbers in summer- intensifi ed, the urgent demand for an international observation arid southern Europe within a period of less than a decade. system for the natural or semi-natural biosphere at its cold edges Within the next decade, many more sites will yield repeat data was recognized. For a long time, such programs were already in sets and many even a third or a fourth monitoring cycle, having place for meteorologists, climatologists, glaciologists, but lacking the potential to discern trends in -- and the velocity of changes for standardised measurements of biodiversity patterns. in -- species composition. Second, the upcoming years should allow for inter-continent comparisons such as between North To fi ll this gap, GLORIA emerged as an Austrian initiative, America and Europe. Studies of fundamental plant diversity joined by concerned ecologists from four continents at its patterns in cold environments from tropical to subarctic biomes beginning around the turn of the millennium. A European Union should be possible for the fi rst time on the basis of standard project provided the ‘critical mass’ for a concerted start with permanent plots. monitoring sites in 18 mountain regions across the continent, shortly after followed by site establishments in North America, Not least, of course, the international GLORIA coordination is and to a smaller extent also in South America and Australasia. now institutionally re-established after a diffi cult re-structuring A key diffi culty in this implementation phase was to deal process, affi liated now to two strong Austrian research with increasing short-duration funding possibilities – kind of institutions, the Austrian Academy of Sciences / Institute for swimming against the mainstream fl ow of rapid project cycles Interdisciplinary Mountain Research as well as the University of with a real long-term approach, where actual change detection Natural Resources and Life Sciences / Center for Global Change would only commence after a period longer than most research and Sustainability. With my young team colleagues – Manuela, projects. A strong emphasis on comparability, simplicity, and Andrea, Sophie, Bine, Armin – we are doing our best to tackle the economy, as well as the engagement of an increasing number day-by-day work and to proceed with upcoming challenges. At of biologists, made it possible to overcome this ever-present this point, I also wish to address Michael Gottfried’s commitment diffi culty: The GLORIA programme now comprises a network to GLORIA, who has been a fundamental pillar for developing of observation sites in 120 mountain regions, distributed over six and establishing the programme – hopefully he can fi nd a way to continents. recover from his sudden illness.

Figure 3. GLORIA side- view of summit design (left) and air-view (right).

24 will be a promising but challenging task. Further, additional data on species’ altitudinal and overall distribution ranges are to be collected in order to explain current and changing patterns of species composition. In addition to traits for ecosystem functioning, species’ distribution patterns are expected to hold some of the keys for interpretation of changes; e.g. species with a continental-arid origin, such as Kobresia myosuroides, which in the Alps also occurs at windswept sites, may be better adapted to decreasing water supply than arctic-alpine ones. On a global level, it will be interesting to determine if species of similar biomes (such as Mediterranean-type, interior steppe-type, tropical humid, arid...), but distant from each other, share similar traits, and if there are fundamental trait-differences with contrasting- climate biomes.

Alpine gold (Hulsea algida), Sweetwater Mtns, CA. Photo: C. Millar Within the past years, a number of additional activities are arising out of the global GLORIA network, partly applied in so-called Connie: Do you have plans for expanding or modifying any GLORIA master sites, where more extensive research facilities aspects of the Program, or using the data gathered by Target are available, but also as extension in standard multi-summit Regions in new ways? study regions. Such activities include downslope transects in short regular elevation intervals to identify regional altitudinal Hari: The further expansion of the site-based network is still ranges, different monitoring approaches for various animal ongoing at an unbroken pace, and is certainly highly appreciated groups, and even socio-economic and cultural aspects relevant in in order to cover still underrepresented mountain systems such as GLORIA regions. in central Asia, Africa, and on oceanic islands and, especially, to enhance statistical signifi cance of regional studies. Connie: What types of outreach efforts have been most effective in communicating the results and implications from the GLORIA The standard protocol was only slightly modifi ed within network? GLORIA’s fi rst decade. In order to keep it operable on a global level, the basic procedure must be simple and rapid enough to Hari: Outreach to policy makers and the public certainly is a be manageable even in remote mountain regions. Therefore, and core concern of the GLORIA programme. Although much of after a broad discussion, the most time consuming parts, such as GLORIA’s work is essentially basic research, it was designed as very detailed frequency counting, were set to an optional level, an indicator system of critical impacts on biodiversity patterns but this step was not completely removed, and more rapid and caused by large-scale human-induced climatic and environmental calculable pointing methods were introduced in addition to the phenomena. GLORIA should, therefore, also function as an existing visual cover estimation method. early warning system for critical shifts in species composition. This, in turn, should help in designing well-targeted conservation GLORIA data are “pluripotent” enough to be not only usable strategies. for detecting changes induced by climate warming or climatic variability, but also for those infl uenced or caused by land-use impacts such as grazing (which may have changed in varied directions such as abandonment or overgrazing in different parts of the world, at least at some of GLORIA’s lower sites) or through atmospheric nitrogen deposition, where critical loads strong enough to alter plant growth and composition may be reached in some regions.

In this context, identiﬁ cation of suitable functional plant traits, which partly could be obtained from literature sources or existing data bases and partly have to be measured in the ﬁ eld Resurvey on White Mtn GLORIA site, 2009. Photo: S. Sady/TahoeLight

25 inspiring. In this context we are now planning additional measurements of soil-water potential at the Mediterranean sites, and to compare with the situation in the temperate Alps. Deceasing water availability in Europe’s southern regions could be a key factor for the observed decline in species numbers.

Other important tasks were already mentioned above, such as using sensitive plant functional traits and distributional “traits”, where the challenge is to develop effective concepts and protocols, and to identify data gaps and how to ﬁ ll them. The work with plant functional traits continues to boom on the international research landscape, where hardly anybody else has such a large data set from real permanent plots.

The most immediate task to be tackled is to get the new version of the GLORIA fi eld manual in place – a priority that is already Georg (far right) and Hari (2nd from left) join Connie Millar (far left) within reach. This is certainly essential and by all the widening and others for a GLORIA reconnaissance trip in the Sierra Nevada, 2004. of the scope and possibilities to answer new research questions, Photo: D. Dulen it is important to not lose the focus of the unique core role of GLORIA. Further a study on observer variability in cover In the search for biodiversity/climate change indicators, the estimation and species detection, based on parallel data sets from European Environment Agency (EEA) could fi nd one for test sites from two European regions, which is in an advanced migratory breeding birds and one for butterfl ies, both based analysis stage, will be an important task. Before running the on existing extensive data sets. For plants no such indicator third survey on the GLORIA master site “Schrankogel” in was available on a Europe-wide scale. Therefore the EEA was 2014 und Europe-wide surveys in 2015, further analyses with contacting the GLORIA coordination to fi ll this gap. Through the existing European data sets are planned including the use of 2012-publications in Nature Climate Change and in Science, the plant functional traits – in a fi rst step with emphasis on the Alps, foundations of the requested indicator are established. where many trait data are available. In the topical Andes, data from GLORIA sites of six countries are now in a very promising, GLORIA, with its unique network, programme and role, is well multi-site analysis procedure, which also uses functional traits. in the “display window” and, thus, rather often in the public media. GLORIA’s website, where a number of updates and improvements are pending, certainly is crucial for fostering outreach. High ranked publications of the past year gave a boost in media presence as well as did the election of Georg Grabherr for the “Austrian Scientist of the Year 2012”, awarded by Austria’s education and science journalists. Connie: What do you see as the most important challenges from the research perspective within the GLORIA framework?

Hari: Well, this is a mix of further structural improvements in data compilation and exchange targeting cross-continental comparisons. I guess that a North American multi-site paper could come up in near future, and upon that a North America- Europe paper would be desirable. The mountain research meeting planned for Reno, NV in July, 2014 could be a good opportunity for discussing and deﬁ ning procedures.

Moreover, comparisons of similar biomes such as the European Alpine gentian (Gentiana newberryi), Sierra Nevada, CA. Mediterranean and the Californian environments could be Photo: C: Millar

26 When I’m sometimes asked, ‘What use are all these data and Georg and Hari Summarize: future anticipated results for such a marginal part of the biosphere as the alpine zone’, I could say that this is (1) the only globally Connie: What lessons could you both share with the CIRMOUNT distributed biome type that is not strongly disturbed by direct community about how to effectively launch and maintain human activities; (2) this diverse natural part of the biosphere, a successful long-term global monitoring program such as however, is now also affected throughout by human-induced GLORIA? global climate change; (3) mountain habitats and biota are the best natural lab to study the ecological implications of climate Georg and Hari: CIRMOUNT, emerging contemporaneously change; (4) the world-wide expanding human infl uence will with GLORIA, both have a rather similar focus, namely pose additional pressure on alpine biota; (5) I’m still convinced on climate change and on mountains. As such, they are a that a large part of the global human society (if not a majority) wonderful example of programs complementing each other in would regret a further shrinking of the natural biosphere and a fl exible cooperation. CIRMOUNT, with the strength of an would consider its cautious use an important challenge; and (6) interdisciplinary community with expertise ranging from physical To be able to respond in a proper way, and to effectively counter to biological research fi elds, focuses on the extensive mountain further degradation and widespread homogenization of species world of western North America; GLORIA is more disciplinary communities, long-term observation appears to me indispensible. focused on biodiversity, but at global scale. CIRMOUNT was essential for GLORIA to get a foothold in North America, and Rather, I wonder why nobody did commence earlier with such continues to be highly important for increasing the number of a site-based monitoring network – as the ecological climate sites, keeping them in operation, and, moreover, to contribute impact discussion started as early as in the 1980s, as Georg was with great experience in developing additional activities related mentioning. And why such efforts, being anyhow not really to GLORIA sites. GLORIA, in turn, links together the global expensive, still live fi nancially in the shadow. Anyway, this is community of mountain ecologists and botanists. ever more a motivation to go forward and to stimulate others to join in. The upcoming major meeting on mountain observation activities in Reno, NV, in July 2014 (see page 32), will be a very good opportunity to further expand this already fruitful collaboration.

Find publications mentioned in this interview on the International GLORIA website: www.gloria.ac.at/

Sierra Nevada GLORIA Target Region. Photo: C. Millar

27 Voices in the Wind In this section of Mountain Views Newsletter, we query members of the CIRMOUNT community for their perspective on a question of current interest. Given the heightened need for active implementation of climate adaptation projects, I asked mountain scientists who are leaders in this subject to comment on the following question. – Editor

What climate-adaptation activities or projects Deanna Dulen, Superintendent, Devils Postpile National do you consider most urgent to be addressed in Monument, Mammoth Lakes, CA western North American mountain ecosystems in the next fi ve years? Devils Postpile National Monument is at the center of the ecological richness of Molly Cross (with daughter, Willa), Climate Change Adaptation mountains, rivers, and meadows Coordinator, Wildlife Conservation Society, Bozeman, MT within the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River Canyon in As we lose critical storage of the Sierra Nevada. Soda Springs water in mountain snowpacks, I Meadow’s fl ora and fauna think it is essential that we look provide the interconnecting for others ways to store water in threads of nourishment to a mountain ecosystems. The urgency symphony of wildlife that nest, comes from the inevitable strain den, feed, and/or migrate through the meadow. Yet throughout that declining water availability the Sierra Nevada, meadows are impacted by many stressors that will have on already tenuous compromise their ecological integrity and hydrologic functions. relationships between various water Some of these stressors can be mitigated and others may respond users, including both human and to adaptation strategies. That is why, I believe, that focused natural systems. Can we increase the 'sponge effect' of mountain efforts to conserve specifi c meadows throughout mountain ecosystems to at least partially compensate for the loss of regions, and Soda Springs Meadow in particular, as meadow snowpack storage? In what ways can we adjust our management refugia must be a priority for this and future managers of the of forests, riparian areas, wetlands and meadows to maximize Sierra Nevada. their water storage potential? If we can demonstrate effective ways to increase water storage in natural ecosystems, with Gregg Garfi n, Assistant Professor and Assistant Extension benefi ts to downstream users (both natural and human systems), Specialist in Climate Science, Policy, and Natural Resources; we may be able to create a broader constituency for natural Deputy Director for Science mountain ecosystems. There are many efforts across the West Translation and Outreach, University (I'm familiar with several in the Sierra Nevada and northern U.S. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ Rockies) to look at meadow, wetland and riparian restoration projects through the lens of water storage under altered climate Connections. Linkages. Integration. conditions; perhaps great value can come of connecting these The most important adaptation disparate projects and formalizing our learning from them. priority for mountain regions in Questions abound about whether ecosystem storage of water North America is well integrated can compensate in any signifi cant way for the loss of mountain planning that links headwaters and snowpacks, whether management of ecosystems for water storage fragile mountain environments with is good for other values (e.g., wildlife habitat, recreation), and downstream water users, in the whether such storage will lead to notable benefi ts downstream. most comprehensive manner possible. There is a tendency for The sooner we tackle these questions the better for getting out society to break down issues by discipline or sector, in order to in front of the water wars that will inevitably be escalated by simplify issues, or by habit, narrow-mindedness, or laziness. In climate change across the West.

28 my opinion, what is lacking from many adaptation discussions or mechanical fuel reduction) to fi re-adapted ecosystems is a top is dedication to a process that integrates many inter-related priority for increasing resilience in the face of climate change- concerns. We need to convene planning initiatives that examine driven drought, insect infestations, pathogens, and large-scale vulnerabilities, potential consequences, and strategies that high severity fi re. Fire and fuels management is a powerful tool take into account all ecosystems, including managed systems that benefi ts large landscapes, including both terrestrial and (e.g., agriculture), and which make explicit linkages between aquatic components and human safety/property. There are many downstream and upstream water, recreation, and resource road blocks, however, so the challenge is really one of socio- extraction activities. This is a daunting, but necessary, task, and economics, policy, and how people deal with short- versus long- one that can develop thoughtful adaptation through transparent term risk. communication of the assumptions made by parties representing In terms of applying scientifi c information to help us make various sectors. Multi-sector processes occasionally foster unholy climate adaptation decisions, we should develop methods for alliances and odd bedfellow partnerships, which are much needed combining this science with human values and management to remove the artifi cial barriers that develop when discussions are feasibility. Vulnerability to climate change in and of itself does stovepiped. By not making these connections, our society risks a not make a decision. Should management effort be prioritized for game of winners, losers, resentments, environmental degradation, species, ecosystems, or places that are least vulnerable because maladaptive strategies, and, ultimately, less economic prosperity. they represent the best chance of long-term persistence, or should we focus on those that are at most risk? The more this process Jessica Halofsky, Research Ecologist in Climate Adaptation, is made transparent and involves partnerships and stakeholder University of Washington, Seattle, WA dialogue, the more likely we are to come to decisions that are supported by different constituents. I think thinning in forest ecosystems Another urgent issue is what to do following extreme events, that historically experienced relatively such as the recent Rim Fire in California or the fl oods in frequent low- and mixed-severity fi res Colorado, that are becoming (and are predicted to become) more is an urgent need in western North common as a result of climatic change. We should be learning America. In addition to decreasing from each event that occurs and planning for future events by likelihood of stand-replacing wildfi re, mitigating unacceptable risks and determining ahead of time there is increasing evidence that the criteria we will use for making decisions about ecosystem thinning in these forest types can restoration or transformation. increase resilience to climate change by moderating tree competition, and increasing residual tree Lastly, I think we should identify which species are the highest access to light and moisture, thereby reducing sensitivity to priority for assisted migration and develop contingency plans for climate stressors. doing so. Controlled pilot tests should be carried out to develop methods and refi ne the selection criteria before the assisted Koren Nydick (with son, Owen), Science Coordinator/ migration becomes a last chance effort. Ecologist, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks, Three Rivers, CA Steve Jackson, Director, DOI Southwest Climate Science Center, I think that there is a plethora of Tucson, AZ ways that scientists, educators, managers, and policy makers can Resources for climate-change advance climate change adaptation. adaptation are limited, and that's Here are a few that are particularly unlikely to change. We need to important in my opinion: use those resources judiciously In terms of long-term monitoring, we should focus on measuring and strategically. There’s a lot of the most critical metrics and developing cost-effective methods adaptive capacity in the species and that are designed to be implemented across jurisdictional ecosystems of the region. Certainly boundaries. Scientists should consider partnering with educators one urgent need is to inventory and to incorporate volunteers when methods allow. assess that capacity, so that we can leverage natural adaptive capacities most effectively and target In terms of on-the-ground climate adaptation, restoring fi re (and/ our interventions where they’ll make a real difference.

29 Dave Peterson, Research Scientist, USDA Forest Service, Pacifi c so we can’t afford to wait until the Big One happens and only Northwest Research Station, Seattle, WA then begin to plan our response. If we’ve gone through planning and compliance ahead of time – anticipating that there’s a good As Wallace Stegner famously wrote, chance that at some point we’ll see sudden, severe changes “aridity is the key to understanding on any particular piece of ground – we’ll be in a much better the history and culture of the position to respond in a thoughtful, adaptive way. American West.” Addressing how lower snowpacks, lower water Jim Thorne, Research Ecologist, Information Center for the supply, and increasingly variable Environment, Department of Environmental Science and Policy, stream hydrographs (more frequent University of California, Davis, CA fl oods AND lower summer fl ows) will affect local communities and Resource managers are typically tasked regional economies is central. Water has been over-allocated in with managing conditions for specifi c many areas, so water distribution systems are already stressed, areas on the landscape. Some of the and confl icts will emerge among different users -- agriculture, things they need to know, therefore, municipalities, hydroelectric power, fi sheries, recreation. A are tied to those mandates, and the relatively small change can push this system beyond any hope of development of practice and policy that sustainability. allows for the implementation of test The most important adaptation approach will be for water users actions, and their evaluation is one need to develop enduring partnerships to identify potential effects of for climate adaptation. The evaluation climate change on water resources and options to reduce negative component of this comment is meant to outcomes. The sooner these partnerships are developed, the more take advantage of the time-frame over which we have projections options will be available before “crises” occur. Engineers are of what climate change is going to do, i.e. that it is happening, already developing creative approaches in anticipation of altered but that we will not immediately arrive as the conditions of 2100, hydrology — risk assessments across large landscapes, new even if modeling gives us some idea of what those conditions standards for roads and culverts that will tolerate increased fl ows, may be. So, adaptive management will need to be even more a prioritization of roads for decommissioning, water passages that part of everyday activities. are fi sh friendly. It has been enlightening to see how quickly However, many of the things that land managers need to address engineers “get it” and are able to move forward with solutions. are processes that are happening across wider regions. Therefore If other scientifi c and management disciplines can emulate this more regional assessments are needed, and coordination between proactive approach, we will improve our chances of successful managers (and the public) is needed to develop strategies for adaptation in mountain ecosystems. management that can be applied locally, but are globally (or at least regionally) relevant. Examples of these considerations Nate Stephenson, Research Ecologist, USGS, Sequoia and include things that are already in discussion among western Kings Canyon Field Station, Three Rivers, CA conservation and ecosystem circles- connectivity and water. But new concerns are also arising, including larger fi res, disease Planning for “the Big One.” By that outbreaks, regional die-backs or expansion of species, and more I mean having a plan in place for how frequent droughts, fl oods, and temperature extremes. Identifying to respond to a severe, widespread, whether there are strategies that can emerge for regional abrupt change, like the effects of an approaches to these types of challenges is needed. unusually extensive and severe wildfi re. A recent example from the southern Sierra is an initiative for Such events are likely to become more joint fi re & research meetings that include national park and frequent in a changing climate. Our national forest representatives, to use workshops and even a window of opportunity to meaningfully gaming approach to try and discern if there are better applications respond to such changes – whether for limited proactive fi re management on the landscape, given by strategically managing erosion or mapped projections of increased climate stress and fi re risk to a re-planting with species adapted to a warmer climate – may landscape of varying vegetation types. Similarly, a project I’m only last a few years. But the usual planning and compliance working on is to locally calibrate and present hydrologic response horizon for land-management agencies can span many years, to projected climate change for management on National Wildlife

30 Refuges. The idea is to help local refuge staff get a better idea Finally, if as projected, snowpacks continue to diminish, then of how conditions may change, which could allow them to much more work is needed to ﬁ gure out how to retain moisture consider how they might need to change the management of on the landscape, both of ecological objectives and as ways to water diversions that many refuges conduct to promote water better promote ground water recharge that can help supply human fowl populations. These types of projects will also likely need to populations. develop public-private partnerships to address emerging concerns across patchwork landscapes. A number of forested regions in the western US are starting to engage with carbon sequestration concepts. In order for these to be effective, understanding of ﬁ re risks, and explicit inclusion of management to address those risks is needed.

Clouds over Lake Geneva, Switzerland. Photo: G. Greenwood

31 Update on Mountain Research IniƟ aƟ ve AcƟ viƟ es Building a Network of Mountain Observers

Greg Greenwood Mountain Research Initiative, Bern, Switzerland

Enhanced observations of mountain regions have been a Understanding Climate Warming at High central concern for MRI from the beginning. While a more Elevations comprehensive international system of mountain social and ecological observations is needed, there is no single entity with The goal of the Global Campaign on Accelerated Climate the authority to organize it or the budget to fund it. Thus it must Warming at High Elevations, now to be rechristened as the be built up from existing regional networks and sites. And the Global Campaign on Elevation Dependent Warming (EDW), is best way to do that is to convene researchers from those networks to assess whether—and if so, where, to what extent, and why— and sites to exchange ideas, see what other networks offer, mountains and other high-elevation regions are warming more develop common programs, assess priority locations, and develop rapidly than other parts of the planet. creative fi nancing options. To that end, MRI and University of Nevada Reno are organizing A Global Fair and Workshop The working hypothesis is that during this period the temporal on Long Term Observatories of Mountain Social-Ecological rate of change of temperature has been greater at higher Systems, scheduled for 16–19 July 2014 in Reno, NV, USA. elevations than at adjacent lower elevations. The existence of See: http://mri.scnatweb.ch/fair-and-workshop-on-mountain- elevational dependent warming has not been shown convincingly observatories/home around the world (Rangwala and Miller 2012). But it matters a great deal to downstream communities whether it is real. The subtitle “Fair and Workshop” signals a dual approach, with the Fair promoting open-ended interaction and the Workshop This initiative is a campaign, not an event or a review paper, promoting more traditional focused presentations and discussion. as we fully expected that defi nitive answers to the underlying The Fair is planned as an elaborate poster session, a marketplace questions will require the effort of many researchers around the in which researchers and managers of different observing sites world for up to a decade. This campaign will involve a review of and networks present Expositions of their goals, sites and existing science but will certainly also require the collection of methods, so that other researchers who may be interested in new data, as it is the paucity of high-elevation station data that expanding their capabilities can learn what is available. The Fair principally precludes defi nitive answers. will also facilitate Side Meetings where people can pursue more focused discussions or even negotiate agreements.

The Workshop component will provide an opportunity for participants to address themes or issues that go beyond their particular site. It will be composed of Sessions, in which participants present papers to an audience much as they would at a scientiﬁ c meeting, and Ateliers (meaning a "shop" or "studio"), in which participants engage with others to discuss a particular topic.

To date, the Fair and Workshop has over 60 Sponsors from around the world. A Second Call is now available, asking for submissions of Expositions, Sessions, Presentations and Ateliers. This event seems to have some traction within the community, and should the response be what we hope, MRI may create subsequent editions in Europe, Asia and elsewhere in future Climate monitoring station at Barcroft, White Mtns, CA, 3800 m. years. Photo: C. Millar

32 The EDW campaign is the demand-side counterpart to the require a concerted new observational campaign in order to supply-side observatory Fair and Workshop. While the Fair evaluate the various hypotheses. Where, how, and for how long and Workshop will determine what data we can get (and what are key parameters that must be set for the new observational questions we can answer) by coordinating existing efforts, the campaign. Finally and perhaps most crucial, the workshop will EDW campaign will specify the kind of observation network we determine the steps needed to implement the plans related to new need if we wish to answer important questions on accelerated datasets and new observations. warming.

Generating a successful campaign will require not just a scientiﬁ c proposal and a funding plan but also a committed network of champions willing to develop and then pursue the effort. While the Fair and Workshop has a long list of sponsors, MRI has enlisted six researchers (Nick Pepin, John All, Michel Baraer, Wolfgang Schöner, Imtiaz Rangwala, Jim Miller), working under co-chairs Ray Bradley of the University of Massachusetts and Tandong Yao of the Institute for Tibetan Plateau Research, to frame a workshop that will develop the proposal and funding plan. The workshop is planned for 23-25 April 2014 just before the European Geophysical Union meeting in Vienna.

The workshop will focus on several key questions:

First, why would we expect enhanced warming at high elevations Alpine plateau of the Central Sierra Nevada rises abruptly from adjacent and where would we expect the mechanisms responsible to be basins to elevations over 4000 m. Photo: C. Millar most manifest? Several mechanisms have been proposed as either contributing to or diminishing EDW. This session will assess Understanding Agency and Governance in the state of knowledge related to these mechanisms and identify Mountain Regions the ideal locations and measurements needed to confi rm their relevance. The third MRI effort focuses on a global study of agency and governance in mountain regions. As much as the community Second, the workshop will examine the evidence for of mountain researchers agrees that human dimensions are accelerated warming at higher elevations: how researchers important, a rigorous scientifi c approach to studying not just have conceptualized the question, the specifi c hypotheses they human ecology (as if our species were just another species of have examined and the data used. It will identify where we wildlife) but also the cognitive and political dimensions of human have high certainty in our answers as well as the major gaps in behavior in mountains has been conspicuous in its absence measurements. (Björnsen Gurung et al. 2012). A third session will explore how we can improve existing The notion of "coupled human-natural systems" has been part datasets, i.e., on all the steps that could be taken to create a global of MRI's lexicon through its close association with the Global dataset that fi lls the gap noted in our attempts to evaluate the Land Project. The GLP Science Plan articulates a reciprocal proposed mechanisms. While station data are an obvious target, relationship between ecological and social systems that creates it will be important to assess reanalysis data as well as other the "land system" which is itself embedded within the larger sources of data, especially remote sensing. Earth system (Fig. 1). The workshop will then focus on the specifi cation of new The science as it pertains to the right side, in which management observational efforts needed to evaluate comprehensively the impinges on ecosystems, alters their structure and function, and hypotheses related to accelerate warming. A central premise thus sets the nature and amount of ecosystems service fl owing of this session is that regardless of the success in the creation back to the social system, can now be roughly described with of a global dataset of existing observations, the commonly mechanistic models of ecosystems. There is still much to do, acknowledged paucity of observations at high elevations will but the general form of an answer has emerged in these models

33 The MRI has sponsored two sessions at the Global Land Project’s Open Science Meeting in Berlin on 19–21 March 2014. The ﬁ rst is a Round-Table discussion, co-chaired with Jörg Balsiger (University of Geneva) and Jayne Glass (University of Highlands and Islands) on the role of governance in adaptation to global change in mountain regions. This session will begin with the general concern of all descriptive governance studies - what are the institutions that govern behavior and lead, among other things, to the management of land resources - but will then proceed to the more speciﬁ c questions of how the highly dynamic nature of the physical environment, the historical diversity of mountain cultures, and the on-going modernization of these regions affect governance arrangements.

Figure 1. The Earth and Land System per GLP (2005). The MRI is also co-chairing with Thomas Kohler (University of Bern) a scientifi c session focusing on coupled human-natural system models for the assessment of the dynamics and resilience and articulates the wide range of relevant notions - radiation of mountain socio-ecological systems. Coupled human-natural and photosynthesis modulated by water, cycles of elements system models provide a rigorous framework by which to express and compounds, trophic levels, biotic community organization, the multiple spatial and temporal scales of the drivers, their etc. These elements are not all of what's inside the ecological repercussions through the system and the resultants feedbacks. system - that is nearly infi nite - but rather that which we need to Their use permits the quantitative assessment of impacts and understand how inputs - management, climate - lead to outputs - responses. In addition and in the current context, such models ecosystem services. often support a detailed and quantitative assessment of resource governance in mountain regions. As with the services they The question naturally arises as to what's inside the social system provide, the governance of mountain regions is frequently circle. The full contents are also nearly infi nite, and thus we multi-level, with authority dispersed across space and leading restrict ourselves to that which transforms the inputs - ecosystem to novel dynamics itself. Coupled models thus provide a means services, global drivers - into outputs - management. for assessing likely future trajectories, and, more globally, the resilience of mountains socio-ecological systems to perturbations. Note that while the currencies in the ecological system are matter and energy, the currencies in the social system are not. Exactly The MRI has also taken a lead in proposing a governance theme what they are is part of the discussion, but at the outset they seem for the Dennis Machida session at the MtnClim 2014 Conference to be more related to information fl ow and subsequent actions, in Midway, UT, USA on 15–18 September 2014. The objective that is, how decisions are made. Thus while we need a model here is to show to the generally biophysically-trained but of the social system, just as we need a model of the ecological nonetheless socially committed MtnClim audience how social system, we should not assume that the form of the former will science conceives of that great black box of "social systems", and have anything to do with the form of the latter. how knowledge of social systems can be useful. A full exploration of how decisions are made, i.e. the governance of mountain systems - how to characterize them, how they differ We have proposed to start with Ostrom's Social-Ecological across cultures, how they will change - goes beyond the scope System approach (Fig. 2) as a point of departure, and later as of the single Synthesis Workshops that MRI has organized in a foil for other methodological approaches. The session will the past. Nor can we say with certainty exactly how to go about then portray empirical work that can illuminate the strengths describing governance. What MRI is doing is convening sessions and weakness of theory. The session will conclude with an open and workshops that we hope will attract a quorum of social discussion lead by Gregg Garfi n (University of Arizona) to scientists and from which we hope will emerge some strong explore how holders of these two different intellectual traditions directions. (of earth system science and of human system science) could jointly imagine some kind of synthesis work.

34 References

Björnsen Gurung A, Wymann von Dach S, Price MF, Aspinall R, Balsiger J, Baron JS, Sharma E, Greenwood G, Kohler T. 2012. Global change and the world’s mountains: Research needs and emerging themes for sustainable development. Mountain Research and Development 32(S1):47–54. GLP. 2005. Science Plan and Implementation Strategy. IGBP Report No. 53/IHDP Report No. 19. IGBP Secretariat, Stockholm. 64 pp. Ostrom E. 2009. A general framework for analyzing the sustainability of social-ecological systems. Science 325:419-422. Rangwala I, Miller J. 2012. Climate change in mountains: A review of elevation-dependent warming and its possible causes. Climate Change. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10584-012-0419-3.

Figure 2. Elinor Ostrom's Framework for Social-Ecological Systems (Ostrom 2009) For more information on the Mountain Research Initiative, contact Greg Greenwood at [email protected] or visit the MRI website: http://mri.scnatweb.ch

Stockhorn, from Walalp, Switzerland. Photo: T. Angeli

35 What Can Climate Services Learn From e-Commerce?

Nina Oakley Western Regional Climate Center, Desert Research Institute, Reno, Nevada

In an offi ce in Carson City, Nevada, a water resource manager squints at a computer screen, pondering the options in front of her in a quest to fi nd the appropriate precipitation data for her current project. “Download raw data? Use data tools? I’m not sure what I need!” She clicks around a few more times, and the results don’t quite meet what she was expecting. Frustrated, she looks up the contact information for the site and sends an email describing her project goal and asking where to fi nd the appropriate data.

I receive her email at the Western Regional Climate Center in Reno, Nevada and wonder how much time she spent looking Figure 1. Likelihood of leaving a web page on a visit. Image source: for the data before emailing. What complicated her search? The Nielsen Norman Group http://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-long-do- structure of the site? Unfamiliarity with climate data terms? users-stay-on-web-pages/ What can we do in climate services to make it easier for people to fi nd what they are looking for? Beyond that, can we act as an With the ever-growing number of websites providing weather and “e-Climony” to match users with a dataset compatible with their climate data, it is clear one has to take a thoughtful approach in application based on a “scientifi c approach”? I began looking for the design of a site to cultivate user satisfaction as well as build answers in e-commerce. Much effort has been taken to make sure user loyalty. Usability consultants have found that user loyalty is it is easy and intuitive to fi nd the product you are looking for and extremely valuable in economic terms, with loyal users tending purchase it on Amazon or create an account and watch a movie to spend considerably more money on a site than a fi rst time on Netfl ix. Perhaps the interfaces used on commercial sites have user (Nielsen, 1997). For data providers that are grant-funded, lessons to offer climate services. defi ning a loyal user base helps to show the relevance of your site and aids in securing fi nancial support. Traveling down this path led me to the fi eld of usability and user experience (UX). The International Standards Organization To learn about usability and UX, I started by reading an excellent (1998) defi nes usability as, "The extent to which a product book, "Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to can be used by specifi ed users to achieve specifi ed goals with Web Usability" (Krug, 2005), which outlines the basic “do’s and effectiveness, effi ciency and satisfaction in a specifi ed context don’ts” as well as justifi cations of usable design. Looking for of use." Dumas and Redish (1999) outline usability with four further insights, I attended Usability Week, a weeklong workshop points: (1) Usability means focusing on users; (2) people use products to be productive; (3) users are busy people trying to accomplish tasks; and (4) users decide whether a product is easy to use. Providing a good user experience becomes necessary since content on the web is bountiful, and users can often fi nd what they are looking for elsewhere if they become frustrated with your site. Worse, if you exhaust users’ “goodwill” towards your site by making it diffi cult to fi nd what they are looking for, they may not be eager to use it in the future or think less of your organization (Krug, 2005). Generally, a user will make the Figure 2: Use terms that users will recognize to reduce cognitive choice to stay on a site or leave within the fi rst 10-20 seconds load. Image excerpted from Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, Second Edition by Stephen Krug. Copyright (Fig. 1). This is not true across all websites and all users but a © 2006. Used with permission of Pearson Education, Inc. and New starting point for thinking about the importance of engaging users Riders. in a short amount of time.

36 addressing various aspects of usability for web pages, apps, Formal usability testing offers support in resolving these issues. and intranets (NNG, 2013). My fellow attendees hailed from In these tests, a user is given a task to perform on the website successful enterprises such as Google, CISCO, ESRI, TiVo and in question (Fig. 3). On the Western Regional Climate Center Fandango, to name a few, so I felt I was at the right place to learn (WRCC) pages, a sample task might be: Download a text fi le of about usability. From the conference and reading material, much daily temperature and precipitation data for Reno, Nevada for of the material applies to good web design in general, though the month of August 2013 in metric units. A facilitator familiar several principles stood out as essential for providing climate with the site observes the user performing the task and prompts services (Fig. 2): the tester to discuss their actions on the site. It is advisable that • Limit options at each step of a task to reduce cognitive load. the testing is documented with video and screen capture so that all members of the group creating the site can reference the test • The user may have a different construct for certain words than results throughout the development of the site. the scientist/programmer designing the site. • Users are most likely to try and “muddle through” rather than The beauty of this process is that signifi cant gains are typically read instructions. seen for a relatively small amount of time and resources. For a • Follow pre-existing web standards, such as search bar in basic usability study, Nielsen (2000) suggests that testing only 5 upper right of page and clearly defi ned buttons to click on. subjects can reveal 85% of design issues (Fig. 4). • Develop and maintain user loyalty. • Test the site early and often with target users!

Exactly how to address these principles in the provision of climate data is the challenge we face. The organization of climate data is much more complex than shoes or books, and the implications of misusing climate data can be far more severe than accidentally ordering the wrong shoe color or not fi nding the link to watch your favorite show. As providers of climate data, we have a daunting task of fi guring out how to present complex information in a user-friendly manner. Additionally, there are currently no widely-followed standards for accessing climate data. This gap provides an opportunity to develop standards, Figure 4. Five test users will typically uncover 85% of usability though they must be well thought out and tested as well as problems. Note that zero test users uncover zero problems! Image source: Nielsen Norman Group, http://www.nngroup.com/articles/why- adapted by other climate service providers. Standards clearly you-only-need-to-test-with-5-users/ exist for purchasing items in an online store. There is generally the use of a shopping cart, and the forms used to complete an order follow a similar sequence and use comparable language The testing process typically looks like this: across pages. With some testing and research, it may be possible • Group defi nes target audience and seeks 5 testers who meet to develop a common language and process for accessing weather this target. and climate data across pages to improve user success and • Group defi nes 1-2 tasks they think all users in the target satisfaction. audience should be able to or would be likely to perform on the site • A “lab” is set up where a webcam observes tester, and tester’s actions on the screen are also recorded. This can be done with a variety of software such as Camtasia (see references). • Tester performs task(s) under supervision of facilitator.

Figure 3. Users often scan for text related to their task rather than • After testing is complete, group observes videos and reading all content. Image excerpted from Don’t Make Me Think: A facilitator notes and decides how to proceed in making the site Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, Second Edition by Stephen more usable. Krug. Copyright © 2006. Used with permission of Pearson Education, Inc. and New Riders.

37 move around a web page, what text do you read and why? These exercises can provide great insight to how to approach the design of sites that provide weather, climate, and other environmental data.

At the WRCC, we are striving to implement usability concepts in websites under development and about to embark on formal usability testing on our new interface for the ACIS database. Our improvements and insights from this and future testing will hopefully reduce the data acquisition frustrations of resource Figure 5. Users often don’t use the site as developers expect! Image managers throughout the West. I look forward to sharing the source: blog.templatemonster.com results of this testing with Mountain Views readers in a future issue. This process is extremely valuable since it highlights one of the fundamentals of usability, letting the user dictate what is usable and intuitive rather than the designer (Fig. 5). It may seem that a large budget and many iterations of testing are needed to improve References and Further Reading a web product, though as Krug (2005) points out, “One of the nicest things about usability testing is that the important lessons Camtasia Screen Recording and Video Editing Software, http:// tend to be obvious to everyone who’s watching. The serious www.techsmith.com/camtasia.html problems are hard to miss.” In the video examples of tests shown International Standards Organization. 1998. ISO 9241-11. at the Usability Week workshop I attended, it was often very clear Ergonomic requirements for offi ce work with visual display what changes were needed to make a site more usable. Things terminals—Part 11: Guidance on usability. Accessed online at: like changing words and phrases or moving the location of an http://www.iso.org/iso/home.html important component to where users said they expected to fi nd Krug, S. 2005. Don’t make me think: A practical guide to web it were immediately apparent. Though we have not embarked on usability. New Riders Publishing, 195 pp. testing of our own yet, we hypothesize usability errors will stand out on our sites in the same manner. Nielsen, J. 1997. Loyalty on the web. Alertbox Newsletter. Accessed online: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/loyalty-on- To get a feel for web usability principles and benefi ts, it is an the-web/ interesting exercise to perform your own self-assessments as Nielsen, J. 2000. Why you only need to test with fi ve users. you use the web. We all have web pages we visit often and Alertbox Newsletter. Accessed online at: http://www.nngroup. enjoy using, as well as those that have frustrated or annoyed us com/articles/why-you-only-need-to-test-with-5-users/ into never returning. What makes the difference between those Nielsen, J and H. Loranger. 2006. Prioritizing web usability. New pages that delight us and those that turn us away? Is it the ease Riders Publishing, 432 pp. and intuitiveness of clicking through to our desired content, the visual harmony of the page, or some other factor? As you use Nielsen Norman Group (NNG). 2013. User experience training at the web to perform various tasks, consider why you decide to Usability Week 2013. Accessed online: http://www.nngroup.com/ click where you click. What tells you it is a clickable area? What training do you expect will happen when you click there, and does the Redish, J and J. Dumas. 1999. A practical guide to usability result of your click meet your expectations? Where do your eyes testing. University of Chicago Press, 404 pp.

38 In late summer, I returned to the Mt Hicks area of the Bodie Mtns, north of the Mono Basin in eastern California. Primarily this was to check plots in the two remote stands of limber pine on the peak, but I was also eager to see the results of the August 2013 Spring Peak Fire, which burned 5800 ha in the eastern Bodie Mtns. Curious about the large patches of unburned sagebrush within the perimeter of the burn, I asked BLM wildlife biologist Sherri Lisius recently what she knew. The answer intrigued me, and I am happy to reprint a story that Sherri had written about ﬁ re management in this and other ﬁ res in the region. – Editor

Reprinted from BLM News Bytes, 2013, Issue 595 Successful Sage-Grouse Habitat ProtecƟ on in Spring Peak Fire Management

Sherri Lisius Bureau of Land Management, Bishop, California

In all wildfi re incidents, human safety, including fi refi ghters and the public, is the highest priority. For the Spring Peak Fire another priority was preventing the loss of important cultural features, including the ghost towns of Bodie and Aurora. The Spring Peak area is also important habitat for the Bi-State greater sage-grouse, now proposed for listing as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The sage-grouse is a chicken-sized bird that relies on sagebrush for food and cover (Fig. 1). It was a third priority that islands of habitat were preserved for the sage-grouse and other sagebrush obligates such as pygmy rabbits.

Figure 1. Male sage-grouse infl ate Figure 2. BLM Bishop Field Offi ce Manager Steve Nelson shows BLM large air sacs of olive-green skin California State Director Jim Kenna a map of islands of sagebrush that and yellow combs to attract mates. were preserved within the Spring Peak fi re perimeter. (Left to right: Photo: Bob Wick, BLM BLM California State Director Jim Kenna, BLM Bishop Field Offi ce Geologist Collin Reinhardt, BLM California State Offi ce Energy and Minerals Branch Chief Steve Kupferman, BLM Bishop Field Offi ce Manager Steve Nelson, BLM Bishop Field Offi ce Wildlife Biologist A common method of wildfi re Sherri Lisius, and Fish and Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist Steve Abele). Photo: Martha Macial, BLM management is to create a perimeter with roads, handline, or dozers, and burn all the Based on radio telemetry data collected on sage-grouse after the green within that perimeter. 2012 Indian Fire, these islands also provide important habitat for This ensures that no fuels sage-grouse (Fig. 4). If the area around the islands comes back remain to reignite, but also with native grasses and forbs, the grouse will use these sagebrush destroys wildlife habitat. In islands during the summer after the burn to rear their broods. the Spring Peak Fire and the nearby Indian Fire of 2012 [in the Cowtrack Mtns, along the eastern Mono Basin], the Bishop BLM Saving the islands is exciting because 1) it helps the area recover, and the USFS worked with the Incident Commander and the 2) sage-grouse habitat remains within the fi re perimeter, 3) other fi re team (Fig. 2) to keep fi refi ghters and public safe, protect the wildlife like deer, pygmy rabbits, and songbirds can also use ghost towns, and allow for some wildlife habitat to remain in the these islands, and 4) it provides a way for resource management form of unburned islands, primarily made up of sagebrush and to be integrated into wildfi re management. In the Spring Peak bitterbrush. These green islands provide a natural seed source to Fire, 1,640 acres of islands were preserved, within the 14,230 help the area revegetate after the fi re (Fig 3). acres of the fi re.

39 Figure 4. Male sage-grouse defend individual territories within leks, strutting with tails fanned and emitting plopping sounds from the air sacs on their chests to attract females. Photo: Bob Wick, BLM

Figure 3. Two views of unburned islands. Photo: C. Millar

Figure 5. Where the ﬁ re could not be managed for habitat islands, the sagebrush steppe burned extensively. Photo: C. Millar

40 Book Review

Alpine Treelines: Functional Ecology of the Global High Elevation Tree Limits

Reprinted with permission from Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research; Originally published as: Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, Vol. 45, No. 3, 2013, pp. 420–424 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1657/1938-4246-45.3.420

Alpine Treelines: Functional Ecology of the Global High Elevation Tree Limits. By Christian Körner. Basel: Springer, 2012. 220 pp. ISBN: 978-3-034-80395-3.

Review by: David M. Cairns, Texas A & M University, College Station, Texas

Christian Körner has been at the forefront of research investi- gating treelines, and in the late 1990s and early 2000s he proposed a unifying theory to explain the global occurrence of this high-elevation phenomenon (Körner, 1998, 1999, 2005, 2007). Since the early publication of this work, he has collaborated with others to refi ne the theory and to gather additional data to support his view of why treelines occur. This book is a culmination of that line of thought and lays out his Treeline at Palmer Creek drainage, Kenai Peninsula in south-central ideas in a clear fashion that is richly illustrated and adequately Alaska. Photo: D. Cairns referenced. The book provides Körner an opportunity to lay One outcome of this conclusion is that the position of treeline out his ideas in detail. For the reader it is a trip through both should not be viewed or measured in elevation, but rather should contemporary and historic literature on treelines that exhaustively be considered in relation to specifi c thermal conditions on a evaluates both Körner’s thinking about the causes of treeline and mountainside (i.e. the global treeline isotherm). When treeline a suite of alternative hypotheses for which he fi nds little support is viewed this way the variability of undisturbed treelines from to explain the global treeline phenomenon. scales that range from the hillslope to the global are more easily understood. The correlation of treeline with a relatively easily The crux of Körner’s hypothesis is that when treelines are mapped physical phenomenon allows Körner to propose that considered globally, they closely follow the 6.4oC average alpine treeline can serve as a global bioclimatic reference line growing season temperature isotherm. Körner stressed that against which other bioclimatic zones can be compared. when we consider the distribution of upright trees in contrast to seedlings and stunted tree growth forms such as krummholz Körner has previously stressed the importance of defi ning the there is remarkable consistency among treeline position around treeline (Körner, 2007). He commendably proposes a single the globe. The mechanism for the global treeline isotherm defi nition of treeline in this book, and adheres to it throughout approach is that upright full-sized trees are more closely coupled the monograph. His defi nition is based on the tree life form aerodynamically with the atmosphere than are seedlings and rather than a tree species. In this context, trees are upright woody short-statured vegetation types common above the treeline. plants with a dominant stem that reaches a height of at least Körner’s ultimate conclusion is that the mean growing season 3 m. Treeline is then defi ned as a line that connects groups of temperature plays a central role in determining treeline position trees at their upper-most limit on a mountain slope. Treeline is and in infl uencing the mechanisms that translate temperature into rarely contiguous and forms a zone on the mountainside that a life-form boundary. may be interrupted by a variety of environmental conditions and

41 processes ranging from human activity to substrate availability. Because Körner is interested in climatic treelines, he draws a distinction among sites that are true treelines and those that are merely a tree species limit. If non-native trees are capable of surviving above the local treeline, but do not due to a biogeographic happenstance, Körner does not consider the treeline to be a true climatic one. He therefore discounts its importance from the standpoint of his global theory. Although Körner notes that these cases are uncommon (e.g. the Hawaiian Islands, and Nothofagus treelines in New Zealand), some treeline scientists will ﬁ nd this problematic.

After laying the groundwork for his global view of treelines in the early chapters of this book, Körner presents details of the data that support his hypothesis. Alternative hypotheses are consid- Treeline at Palmer Creek drainage, Kenai Peninsula in south-central ered, and Körner explicitly addresses the infl uences of reproduc- Alaska. Photo: D. Cairns tion, stress, and nutrient status on the growth and survival of trees at high elevations. He concludes with an overview of the Although Körner provides a wealth of data in support of his information that he has painstakingly laid out in the fi rst 11 hypothesis, he will have critics. Körner’s concentration on chapters of the book and then places his theory into a temporal treeline as a global phenomenon disregards the impact of perspective by considering what his thoughts mean for treelines local conditions that may infl uence the pattern and position in the recent and distant past and what his understanding of of treeline. He acknowledges that specifi c disturbance types treeline may mean for future treelines. such as herbivory, fi re, wind, and human activity can have The fi nal chapter addresses the question of whether treeline is in local infl uences on the tree survival and treeline position, but equilibrium with climate, and, if so, at what temporal scale this these are not the emphasis of his monograph. For those readers equilibrium develops. Körner surveys the literature for evidence interested in detailed discussions of processes that lead to fi ne- in the recent and distant past to address this question. He fi nds scale heterogeneity at treelines, other sources will offer a much that in the recent past (<200 years) treeline does not seem to be greater depth of discussion. The coarser scale explanations of a in equilibrium with climate changes. The climate has changed too phenomenon, however, are worth considering. Readers familiar rapidly to allow for adult trees to track with the climate. Körner with hierarchy theory (Allen and Starr, 1982) will easily fi nd assumes a lag time of greater than 50 years between climate a way to situate fi ne-scale questions within the coarse-scale change and the equilibration of the treeline. This is due to factors controls laid out here by Körner. including the length of time that it takes for a seedling to grow There are several other books that have been published to ‘‘tree- size,’’ and the frequency of adequate seed production. previously on treeline. Körner acknowledges this, and it is useful In contrast to the short-term disequilibrium between climate and to know how his work fi ts into the collection of pre-existing treeline position, Körner notes that when viewed over longer treeline monographs. Earlier volumes have been either aimed periods using a variety of paleoecological proxy data, that treeline at a different kind of audience (Arno and Hammerly, 1984), are position is tracking temperatures consistent with what we observe location-specifi c (Butler et al., 2009), or focus on scales below today. Körner’s treatment of the historical data on treeline change the global (Holtmeier, 2003). This volume is most closely related is not exhaustive, but is suffi cient to illustrate his main point. to Tranquillini’s (1979) Alpine Timberline, and in many ways One of the great strengths of the approach that Körner takes in reads as an update on the status of physiological ecological this book is the focus on treelines globally. Even without the research at treeline, but with an emphasis on the global treeline. emphasis on a global treeline driver, the inclusion of data from so many different treeline sites outside of the northern temperate Overall this is an excellent addition to the library of anyone zone is refreshing. There is comparatively little treeline research interested in the functional ecology of trees at high elevations. published from the tropics and it is nice to see so much of that Graduate students and those new to studying treeline should be work referenced in one volume. encouraged to read the text, and those of us who have been interested in treeline research for a long time will undoubtedly fi nd something new in this book.

42 References Cited Körner, C. 1999. Alpine Plant Life. First edition. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 338 pp. Allen, T. F. H., and Starr, T. B. 1982. Hierarchy: Perspectives for Körner, C. 2005. The green cover of mountains in a changing Ecological Complexity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. environment. In Hubter, U. M., Bugmann, H. K., and Reasoner, Arno, S. F., and Hammerly, R. P. 1984. Timberline: Mountain and M. E. (eds.), Global Change and Mountain Regions: An Arctic Forest Frontiers. Seattle: The Mountaineers, 304 pp. Overview of Current Knowledge. Dordrecht: Advances in Butler, D. R., Malanson, G. P., Walsh, S. J., and Fagre, D. B. Global Change Research pgs 367–375. 2009. The Changing Alpine Treeline: the Example of Glacier Körner, C. 2007. Climatic treelines: conventions, global patterns, National Park, MT, USA. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 199 pp. causes. Erdkunde 61: 316–324. Holtmeier, F.K. 2003. Mountain Timberlines: Ecology, Tranquillini, W. 1979. Physiological Ecology of the Alpine Patchiness, and Dynamics. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Timberline, Tree Existence at High Altitudes with Special Publishers, 369 pp. Reference to the European Alps. New York: Springer-Verlag, 137 Körner, C. 1998. A re-assessment of high elevation treeline pp. positions and their explanation. Oecologia 115: 445–459.

View toward the Sheldon Antelope Refuge, from the Pine Forest Range, NW Nevada. Photo: S. Strachan

43 New Book

Th e West Without Water: What Past Floods, Droughts, and other Climate Clues Tell Us about Tomorrow University of California Press, 2013, 289 pages By B. Lynn Ingram and Frances Malamud-Roam

The West without Water documents the tumultuous climate of the American West over twenty millennia, with tales of past droughts and deluges and predictions about the impacts of future climate change on water resources. Looking at the region’s current water crisis from the perspective of its climate history, the authors ask the central question of what is “normal” climate for the West, and whether the relatively benign climate of the past century will continue into the future.

The West without Water merges climate and paleoclimate research from a wide variety of sources as it introduces readers to key discoveries in cracking the secrets of the region’s climatic past. It demonstrates that extended droughts and catastrophic fl oods have plagued the West with regularity over the past two millennia and recounts the most disastrous fl ood in the history of California and the West, which occurred in 1861–62. The authors show that, while the West may have temporarily buffered itself from such harsh climatic swings by creating artifi cial environments and human landscapes, our modern civilization may be ill-prepared for the future climate changes that are predicted to beset the region. They warn that it is time to face the realities of the past and prepare for a future in which fresh water may be less reliable.

44 Upcoming CIRMOUNT Conference: MtnClim 2014 September 15-18, 2014, Midway, Utah

MtnClim 2014, the biennial climate conference sponsored by forest ecosystems and their interaction with climate change and CIRMOUNT, will convene Sept 15-18, 2014, at the Homestead bark beetles. As always, contributed talks and posters will be Resort in Midway, UT, in the high Wasatch Mtns. MtnClim important parts of the agenda. We plan a pre-conference ﬁ eld celebrates its 10th anniversary with this meeting, the ﬁ rst trip to the Uinta Mountains, and a post-conference resource conference having taken place at North Lake Tahoe, CA in 2004. managers’ workshop, both to focus on forest health and climate in The program for 2014 includes invited sessions on mountain the Great Basin and western Rocky Mountains. climate refugia, micro-climate processes, and opportunities for climate adaptation; a session in honor of Dennis Machida on Deadline for registration, abstracts, and lodging is July 15 2014; coupled human-social systems in mountains; and a session on early registration is encouraged as attendance is limited to 120 early-career scientists’ research. Invited talks will feature a 10- participants. year retrospective and prospective of research accomplishments and future needs in mountain-climate science; a national MtnClim 2014 Conference Website: perspective on the role of mountain climate science in emerging www.fs.fed.us/psw/mtnclim/ policy and applications; a round-up of the climate and weather highlights since MtnClim 2012; and an overview of Great Basin For questions, contact Connie Millar, [email protected]

Mt Timpanogos. Photo: B. Temper

45 Conference on Mountain Meteorology American Meteorological Society Summer 2014: Dates and Location Pending

Program topics will include:

• Stable and convective orographic precipitation • Mountain climate and climate change • Boundary layers and turbulence in complex terrain • NWP and data assimilation in complex terrain • Slope fl ows and cold pools • Infl uence of terrain on meso- and synoptic scale predictability • Mountain air quality and chemistry • Wind resource assessment in complex terrain • The effect of the planetary boundary layer on aerosol and • Lake breezes, land/sea breezes, and other complex-topography chemical measurements at high- effects elevation sites • Hydrological processes in complex terrain • Mountain waves, rotors, and terrain induced windstorms • Results from recent fi eld campaigns: HyMeX, Materhorn, DeepWave, etc.

Watch this website for further information: http://www.ametsoc.org/meet/meetinfo.html and/or contact Daniel Kirshbaum, NOAA, [email protected], or Heather Reeves, NOAA, [email protected]

Three Fingered Jack, Oregon Cascades. Photo: J Blanchard

46 Did You See (Hear, Touch, Smell, Feel) It? OddiƟ es of Mountain Weather and Climate

This section of Mountain Views Newsletter highlights unusual mountain-weather events or climate-related phenomena of western mountains. I welcome your comments on processes and observations described, and encourage submissions for future issues. In the story below, I was fortunate to have Nina Oakley tutor me on details of gravity waves and lenticular clouds. – Editor LenƟ cular Clouds Revisited

Connie Millar1 and Nina Oakley2 1USDA Forest Service, Pacifi c Southwest Research Station, Albany, California 2Western Regional Climate Center, Desert Research Institute, Reno, Nevada

Lenticular clouds (Figs. 1, 2), also called lens clouds or mountain wave clouds develop commonly in mountain regions, so why do they qualify as a subject for this section of Mountain Views Newsletter? Despite their familiarity, lenticular clouds, like autumn foliage, double rainbows, brilliant sunsets, and full moons, keep turning heads and fi nd us reaching for cameras. More importantly, although most of us can explain the general cause of these clouds – “they form like a standing wave in a river” – I (Connie) realized my knowledge was shallow on questions such as: Under what meteorological conditions, seasons, and times of day do lenticular clouds form? Do they develop in some mountain regions more than others and, if so, why? Are mountain cap clouds (Fig. 3) and lenticular clouds the same thing? Why do lens-shaped clouds exist both over the apex of the mountains and at periodic distances downwind over Figure 2. Lenticular clouds, Aiguille du Midi, Chamonix, France. Photo: basins or valleys? Trying to answer these questions to satisfy my J. Blanchard curiosity, we offer the following simplistic explanations for a complex meteorological phenomenon. When fast moving (≥ 25 knots), stably stratifi ed air is forced to rise over a topographic barrier, gravity waves, or “mountain waves” can develop in the atmosphere (Fig. 4). The mountain barrier defl ects air up along its windward side, and, as the air crests the summit, gravity acts as a restoring force to bring the air back towards equilibrium. When the air is pulled back towards equilibrium on the lee side of the mountain barrier, the air will “overshoot” equilibrium level and oscillate, much like a fl oating cork pushed underwater will bob several times before returning to a stable position. This oscillation is referred to as a mountain wave. These waves are best formed where a stable atmosphere exists above the topographic barrier (in western North America about > 700 mb or 10,000 ft, Vieira 2005). When suffi cient moisture is present and air is cooled to the point of condensation, lenticular clouds, known formally as altocumulus standing Figure 1. Lenticular clouds over the Sweetwater Mtns, California, from lenticularis clouds, can develop at the mountain wave crests. On Molybdenite Canyon. Photo: C. Millar. the lee side of the wave crest, as the air descends and warms, the

47 Figure 4. Schematic showing formation of mountain waves and related features. As stable air fl ow is defl ected upward and over a perpendicularly oriented topographic barrier (mountain range), cap Figure 3. Cap cloud on Middle Sister, Central Oregon Cascades. Photo: clouds can form over the summits. Lenticular clouds can form in the J. Blanchard peaks of the oscillating air fl ow (mountain wave) downwind if adequate moisture is present. Trapped lee waves, whose energy does not propagate cloud evaporates, helping to shape the lower boundary of the vertically because of strong shear or low stability, occur in the higher lenticular cloud. The oscillation of mountain waves can result in atmosphere. Rotor clouds can occur downwind of the topographic lenticular clouds appearing for many miles downstream of the barrier near the surface as a result of turbulence and shear. From: UCAR mountain barrier until their energy is dissipated via friction with COMET© Program educational materials, https://www.meted.ucar.edu/ mesoprim/mtnwave/frameset.htm the surrounding air (Fig. 5). These clouds appear stationary, though very dynamic air is lenticular clouds. The intensity and organization of rotors is tied continuously fl owing through the mountain wave like a conveyor to the strength of the mountain waves and wind velocity. When belt, with condensation on the upslope side of the wave and suffi cient moisture is present, a rotor cloud will form at the top of evaporation on the downslope side. Lenticular clouds can occur at the rotor circulation (Whiteman 2000, Xue 2007). various heights in the atmosphere depending on the vertical wind and temperature profi les, which control whether the mountain The structure of mountain wave winds and formation of lenticular wave is propagating vertically or horizontally. Lenticular clouds clouds and related processes are determined by the size and shape developed at higher elevations may appear thicker and larger of the mountain and by the vertical profi les of temperature, wind due to cooler temperatures allowing for greater amounts of speed and moisture in the impinging fl ow. These conditions condensation. thus develop within a variety of synoptic regimes, and depend on details of regional climate and topography. In many parts Mountain waves can be created by terrain of varying height, of western North America, lenticular clouds can occur in any but the best type of wave generator is elongated high terrain perpendicular to the fl ow. Short cone-shaped peaks are not good generators of mountain wave clouds, although lenticular clouds can develop over such summits if they are of suffi cient height, such as Mt. Shasta or Mt. Rainier. Thus, the type of topography in a mountain region infl uences the nature and abundance of lenticular clouds.

In addition to lenticular clouds, other types of clouds can be created in a mountain wave situation. With sufﬁ cient moisture, a lenticular cloud with a cloud base below the mountain peak called a cap cloud will form over the barrier (Whiteman 2000). A turbulent eddy called a rotor forms on the lee side of the terrain barrier when mountain waves are present. Rotors rotate about an axis parallel to the mountain range and are often observed below Figure 5. Lenticular clouds, Mt Denali, Alaska. Photo: J. Littell.

48 season, though are most prevalent in fall, winter or spring when the jet stream References is likely to pass over the region (Lester 2004). Durran, D.R. 2003. Lee waves and mountain Because the nature of mountain waves can be highly turbulent, with abundant waves. Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences, shear winds aloft and often accompanied by strong, gusty rotor winds at the Holton, J.R., J. Pyle and J.A. Curry, eds., Elsevier surface, the presence of lenticular, cap, or rotor clouds indicates hazardous Science Ltd. pp. 1161-1169. conditions for pilots. Strong mountain waves can develop regardless of Durran, D.R., and J.B. Klemp. 1983. A water content in the air. Under dry atmospheric conditions, mountain waves compressible model for the simulation of moist occur without lenticular, cap, or rotor cloud formation. These conditions are mountain waves. Monthly Weather Review 111: especially serious for airplanes because the existence of these waves is not 2341-2361. visually apparent. Lester, P. 1994. Aviation weather. Jeppesen Sanderson, Inc. Englewood, CO. Vieira, A. 2005. Mountain wave activity over the Southern Rockies Albuquerque Center Weather Service Unit (CWSU). http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ media/abq/LocalStudies/MountainWavesUpdate. pdf Whiteman, D.C. 2000. Mountain meteorology: Fundamentals and applications. Oxford University Press. Xue, M. 2007 Mountain Forced Flows. Oklahoma University Meteorology. http://twister.ou.edu/ MM2005/Chapter2.1_2007. pdf

Figure 6. Lenticular clouds, Owens Valley and the Sierra Nevada. Photo: J. Blanchard

49 The Ever-Changing CelebraƟ on

Margaret Eissler, Ranger Naturalist National Park Service, Yosemite National Park, California

Reprinted from Yosemite Guide, 2013, Vol 8, page 18 appear. Birds mate, nest, lay eggs, and feed nestlings that quickly fl edge. There is no time to lose. It’s all about reproductive The year has always seemed to me a circle—a ring with a survival. It is simultaneously serious business and a vibrant jewel at the top. The jewel is summer in Tuolumne Meadows, a celebration of life. gleaming, magical celebration of time and place. If you took the same walk everyday, you would notice something Tuolumne Meadows stands at 8,600 feet above sea level. The different each time: a new fl ower in bloom, another gone to seed; designated Wild and Scenic Tuolumne River meanders through a robin’s nest brimming with demanding, hungry mouths, then an broad subalpine meadows surrounded by peaks and domes. In the empty nest; a hawk, dive-bombed by jays and robins, sitting on a high mountains, winter lasts most of the year. The jewel, then, is branch, eating one of these fl edglings; the hermit thrush singing not simply “summer” but rather three seasons—spring, summer, its fl ute-like song and then, suddenly, mid-season, silent. and fall—compressed into the calendar months typically called “summer.” Summer soon overlaps the end of spring. The higher sections of the meadows dry and turn golden brown. The river, once loud Everything has to happen quickly in this short time. It’s a wild and raging, dwindles, becomes quiet and easy to cross. The white dance, a fl urry of activity. The early blooming of shooting stars gentians (Gentiana newberryi) show up with frilly petals. Pale and buttercups begins a rapid succession of fl owering events green dots inside lure pollinators to nectar deep within their bell- across eight to ten weeks, an intense period of buds unfolding shaped fl owers. This and two other gentian species are the last to to bloom, then seed, then plants stocking up energy in their bloom in these high meadows. They signal the coming of fall and roots in preparation for next spring. Mosquitoes and dragonfl ies the approach of winter. emerge from the lakes and ponds. Frog eggs hatch into tadpoles. Although every year is different, I’ve noticed autumn arriving Lodgepole pines release their pollen. Deer give birth to fawns. around the third weekend of August. You can hear the seasonal Baby Belding’s ground squirrels and yellow-bellied marmots change. Wind blows through the tops of the lodgepole pines. The

Aspen leaves. Photo: J. Wyneken

50 kingfi shers arrive and make their rattling calls as they fl y the river All of us join this wild celebration when we visit the high course. The Townsend’s solitaire, a robin-like bird, sings endless mountains. Clearly we are just one small part of everything that is warbling songs from the tops of trees, seemingly without taking going on. We become aware that plants and animals have no time a breath. The chickaree, also known as the Douglas tree squirrel, to recover if something goes wrong—like the damage caused by becomes more active and noisy as it makes last preparations for a few people walking on these fragile meadows. This awareness winter. The bilberry, a meadow ground cover, turns fi ery orange inspires respect, a thoughtfulness about how to be in this place: and red. The days are noticeably shorter. Freezing nights frost the where we put our feet, where we picnic, how fast we drive. meadow grasses and sedges. There’s an excitement in the air, a Everything is alive, vibrant, yet delicately balanced within this sense of urgency and anticipation. The bears are extra hungry. It short span of time. could snow any time. The year has always seemed to me a circle—a ring with a jewel A raven clicks and croaks in the tree just beyond my cabin door. at the top. I wear it always and try to live up to what it stands Brewer’s blackbirds fl ock together, “whirl in the autumn winds” for: a marriage of sorts, a commitment to place, an awareness of as the poet says, and leave their many tracks in the snow. It’s the relationship with everything else. Maybe we all wear place rings. end of September, time to pack up and move to lower elevations We all live within the circle of the year and a cycle of seasons. before the big snowstorms come. Some animals stay, but most Which ring do you wear? Where is your place? leave for the long winter.

Valerie P. Cohen, "June Snow on Tenaya Lake, Yosemite," Watercolor, 22" x 30"

51 Contributing Artists

I hope you enjoy the mountain clouds photography highlighted in Kelly Redmond, Deputy Director and Regional Climatologist, this issue of Mountain Views Newsletter. Please feel free to send Western Regional Research Center, Desert Research Institute, me your favorite mountain tree photos, a topic for photographs Reno, NV; in the Spring 2014 issue. Many thanks to the following cloud photographers: Scotty Strachan, Environmental Research Coordinator, Department of Geography, University of Nevada, Reno, NV; Thomas Angeli, Journalist, Mühlethurnen, Switzerland; Stu Weiss, Chief Scientist, Creekside Center for Earth Jehren Boehm, mountainteer, bike mechanic, and oft research Observation, Menlo Park, CA. assistant, Department of Geography, University of Nevada, Reno, NV; Reproductions of watercolor paintings of mountain landscapes are by Valerie Cohen. Valerie often accompanies our GLORIA Jim Blanchard, retired Professor of Outdoor Education, expeditions in the White Mountains, CA, where we are fortunate University of Oregon, Eugene, OR; to view her original works, and peek over her shoulder as she creates new pieces. Valerie lives in the Tahoe region of the Greg Greenwood, Executive Director, Mountain Research Sierra Nevada, CA. More of Valerie’s work can be found at her Initiative, Bern, Switzerland; website: http://valeriepcohen.com/

Jeff Hicke, Associate Professor, Department of Geography Poetry featured in this issue is from Norman Schaefer, Port University of Idaho, Moscow, ID; Townsend, WA, whose mountain verse I have featured before. The short poems in this issue are from his new book, Fool’s Jeremy Littell, Research Ecologist, USGS, Alaska Climate Gold, 2013, La Alameda Press, Albuquerque, NM: www. Science Center, Anchorage, AK; laalamedapress.com/

The Sisters, Sweetwater Mtns., NV. Photo: J. Boehm

52 Mountain Visions

Thin ice: I came to Little Five Lakes some of Mono Creek to be alone for a while, will be staying here tonight. so this monsoon blew in at just the right time.

Clouds cover the stars over Mt. Clarence King and darkness comes incomprehensible. I can’t explain anything tonight.

– Norman Schaefer

Valerie P. Cohen, "Storm Over Carson Valley," Watercolor, 22" x 30"

53 Valerie P. Cohen, "Mount Morrison," Watercolor and Ink, 22" x 30"

I have wandered One big storm far and wide and the creek thinks in the Sierra Nevada, it’s a river. but nothing like the autumn wind tonight.

– Norman Schaefer

54 South Sister from Broken Top, Oregon Cascades. Photo: J. Blanchard